TEACHING PROBLEM 



AXTELL 



MESSAGE 

TO 

SUNDAY 

SCHOOL 

WORKERS 




Class _BYl5_2i_ 

Book ,hl.l. 

Copyright If 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Teaching Problem 

A Message 

to Sunday School 
Workers 



By 

J. W. AXTELL 

Author of "The Organized 
Sunday School " 






Nashville, Tenn. 

The Cumberland Press 

1902 






CONGRESS, 

ww 3 ion? 



Copyright 1902, by J. W. Axteiyl. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

^ Page. 

A Preliminary Chapter 9 

Where All Roads Lead— The School on the Fir- 
ing Line — Books and Books and Books — Too 
Much Taken for Granted— A Real Reason for 
Failure — Misapprehension Bars Our Way — A 
Searchlight Quest. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Teacher as an Element in Organiza- 
tion 13 

Strictly in the Inner Circle— There is Only One 
Right Place— The Independent Disorganizer— 
No Uncertainty Admissible— Holding Up the 
Officers* Hands — A Much Needed Funeral— A 
Move on the Secretary— Make All Action Unani- 
mous—Make the School Irresistible. 

CHAPTER HI. 

The Teacher a Subordinate 18 

The Necessity of Leadership — A Question of 
Loyalty— Usefulness and Subordination— When 
Teachers Support Authority— A Sunday School 
Anarchist— The Matter of Self Choosing— They 
Should Know Better — A Straight Road to Chaos— 
Not a Place for Volunteers— Let New Classes Be 
Contingent— A Very Common Volunteer Type— 
A Center of Insubordination— A Class Disinte- 
grator—Availability Regulating Choice— Select- 
ing, Shifting, Retiring—Unconditional Subordi- 
nation. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Teacher as a Participant 27 

The Lack of Sympathy— Three Unsatisfactory 
Types— A part in the Exercises— Why the School 
Stands Back— Indifference Always Inexcusable 
—The Cold, Negative Teacher— "For " Things 
and "In" Things — Superintendent-Making— A 
Matter of Petty Sacrifice. 



Contents 



CHAPTER V. 

The Teacher's Relation to Other Teachers. 32 

A Source of Strength and Power— O, that Mar- 
ring Incompatibility 1— The Chill of Exclusive- 
nes3 — The Proselyting Spirit — An Unmerited 
Scolding— A Really Damaging Service— The Lo- 
cating of School Recruits— A Necessary Heroic 
Remedy— Recruiting as a Stimulus— An Inspir- 
ing Harmonv— Creating a Class Spirit — Contin- 
gent Good Things . 

CHAPTER VI. 

Faithfulness to Outward Duties 39 

The Inner and the Outer Life— Conspicuous, Fer- 
vent Loyalty — Irregularity Intolerable — Vaca- 
tion Time Indifference— A Very Bad Pattern— 
A Model in Liberality— Attending Church Ser- 
vices — The Teachers' Meeting — Doubtful Amuse- 
ments—The Lesson and the Life— No Spasmodic 
Faithfulness. 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Teacher's Tenure of Office 47 

Officers Chosen for a Year— The Teacher's Offi- 
cial Term— Some Needless Alarm— The Teacher 
Cannot Know — The One Positive Remedy — An 
Improved Situation— The Chance for Substitu- 
tion—Safety in Fixed Tenure. 

CHAPTER VHI. 

Fitting- the Teacher to the Class 53 

Some Prevalent Misfitting — Some Necessary 
Gradiner— Assorting Teachers Also— Teachers of 
Many Kinds— Women in the Majority— Parity in 
Sex Desirable— Suitable Primary Teachers— Sex 
in Selecting Teachers— The "Example" for the 
Class— About the Large Bible Class— Annual Ad- 
justments. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Some Undesirable Types of Teachers 59 

Excellent People, but— —The Over-Zealous 
Teacher— The Teacher with a Hobby— Teaching 
by the " Quarterly "—The Oblivious Teacher— 
The Superannuated Teacher— The Immature 
Teacher— Some Incurable Cases. 



Contents 



CHAPTER X. 

Renovating a Corps of Teachers 64 

Looking Facts in the Face— A Disagreeable Di- 
lemma—Yielding to Sentiment— Summary Ac- 
tion Unwise— Wholesale Demoralization-Trying 
Personal Appeal — Making Substitutions — Set- 
ting Up Stand rds— Some Stipulated Conditions 
—Forestalling the Kicker — Obstruction Mini- 
mized—Possible Scarcity of Teachers— The 
Greatest General Good. 

CHAPTER XI. 
The Teacher as the Pupil's Friend and 

Helper 72 

Getting Close to the Pupil— The Basis of Friend- 
ship—Practical Helpfulness— Entering the Boy's 
Circle— Getting Hold of His Life— A Place for 
Common Sense— Finding Employment— At the 
Teacher's Fireside. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Class Location and Equipment 78 

Up-to-date Architecture— Control as Regulating 
Size— The Matter of Easy Control— Some Sug- 
gestive Figures— Centrally Located Classes— Ob- 
jections to Curtains— The Loud-Voiced Brother 
—The Lawyer Before the Jury— Forming the 
Arc of a Circle— The Class in the Corner. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Some Measurements of the Teacher 85 

Breadth Means Usefulness — The Character 
Former — The Teacher Photographed — Merit 
Marked by Modesty— Scarcity of Choice Ma- 
terial—Using the Raw Recruits— No Halting in 
School Progress— The School Becomes a Power- 
Things Known of the Best Teacher— The Substi- 
tute Teacher— The Pastor as a Teacher— A Com- 
ing Higher Standard. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Preparation for Teaching- 92 

A Pair of Dangerous Pilots— He is Ready When 
He is Ready— Definite Things to be Taught— 
The Happy Inspiration— Bounding the Field of 
Study— Do Not Measure Too Closely— Avoid 
Possible Short Cuts— The Due Portion in Season. 



Contents 



CHAPTER XV. 

Some Things to Be Studied 97 

The Geographical Setting— Chronology and Lo- 
cality—Conditions, Environment, etc.— The Bio- 
graphical Feature— The Study of the Lesson 
Text— The Lesson's Central Truth— Focusing 
Preparation. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Planning- a Lesson 101 

Specific, Clear, Positive — Well Begun, Well 
Ended— Framing the Questions— A Critical Self 
Critic— The Demoralizing Impulse— Questions 
from the " Help "—Individuality Demanded— 
Planning the Illustrations— Bringing Order Out 
of Chaos. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Teaching by Questions 107 

The Socratic Method of Teaching— The Clear, 
Strong Question— Taking the Pupils Seriatim— 
A Too Early Designation— The Self- Answering 
Question— Two Possible Meanings— Make the 
Most of the Lame Answer— Questions Put to 
the Test. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Matter of Attention Ill 

Meeting the Teacher Half Way— Attention is 
Never Passive — Keep the Pupil Employed — 
Earnestness and Attention— The Pupil as a Par- 
ticipant—A Challenge from the Pupil. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Teaching the Individual 115 

Pupils and Pupils and Pupils— The Teacher 
With One Way— A Sample Misfit Lesson— Know- 
ing the Individual— How the Mormons Know- 
There May Be an Open Sesame. 

CHAPTER XX. 

The Pupil's Cooperation 120 

To Be Taken as a Fixed Fact— From Sojourner 
to Helper— Something Definite Ahead— Inducing 
Good Class Work— Use the Pupil's Knowledge— 
A Draft Always Honored— An Uncompaniona- 
ble Stride. 



Contents 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Making" the Lesson Plain 125 

A Meagerness of Knowledge — Illuminating the 
Text — Measurement of a Truth— Teaching May 
Be Overdone — Teaching Known Things — The 
Teacher's Good Part. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Some Practices to Avoid 129 

Strait- Jacket Teaching— Stereotyped Teaching- 
Teaching Our Own Theories— Wandering from 
the Lesson— The Idea of Entertaining— Flip- 

Sancy to Be Avoided— Suppress the Debater— 
•anger in Knowing Too Much— Misusing Scrip- 
ture Texts— Teaching Indeterminate Things. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Additional Teaching- Memoranda 136 

Conversant With Current Things— Keeping Up 
the Connection— The Bible Always First— Where 
the "Help" Belongs— Not All to be Taught— 
Talking Against Time— The Pupil's Develop- 
ment—The Office of the Review— Points About 
Reviews— Hold Fast to the Bible. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Decision Day 142 

The Sower Goes Forth to Sow— And Who May 
Do the Reaping— A Modern Line of Effort — De- 
cision Day a Culmination— The Work of Years 
Involved— Do Not Make It a " Scheme M — Prepa- 
ration for the Day— With the PupiJ Personally— 
Ready for Confession— Help the Pupil to Under- 
stand—Make Public Confession Plain— Personal 
Conversion— Time and Conditions— The Part of 
the Pastor— 1 Feed My Lambs." 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The Closing Word 150 

A Condensed Treatment — Principles, Rather 
than Details— The Teacher's Individuality — 
Purpose and Intelligence— The First Contribu- 
tion. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The unexpectedly cordial reception accorded 
to "The Organized Sunday School'* has been 
followed by numerous suggestions and requests 
that a similar message be prepared for the 
teacher. Hence this little book, which, while 
addressed especially to the teacher, is, after all, 
equally suggestive to the superintendent and 
possibly to the pastor. In its preparation it is 
assumed that the teacher is what he should be 
morally, spiritually, in habit and in life. That 
he should measure up to this standard is a basal 
principle, as is also the proposition that if he is 
anything else his sacred office should promptly 
be declared vacant. 

The reader who follows these pages closely 
will find all through them the unwritten ques- 
tion, Is the teacher in the proper attitude to- 
ward his work? — not Is he smart enough, or 
skillful enough, or has he " schemes " enough ? 
Without undervaluing means and method, I am 
after the teacher's heart, purpose and general 
Sunday school life, preferring to pressingly 
suggest a higher attainable practical useful- 
ness, rather than to propose voluminous speci- 
fications as to details in teaching. 

The Author. 

Nashville, Tenn., August, 1902. 

7 




The Teaching Problem 




iJt- 



sm 



CHAPTER I. 



A PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 

RCHITECTS who plan modern 
churches are giving- greatly in- 
creased attention to the quarters to 
be occupied by the Sunday school, and 
in these quarters are bending- every- 
thing- to securing- greater conveniences and im- 
proved facilities for the work of the teacher. 
Officers are chosen and the details of 
organization are arranged primarily 
to promote in every possible way the 
instruction of the pupil. Good music is pro- 
— vided, not only for the service of praise, 
ZZ but to attract people within a circle of in- 
fluences where they may be taught. All 
roads in the Sunday school lead to the seat 
before the teacher. Other things are lost sight 



Where all the 
Roads Lead 



of in the effort to add other seats to this, and to 
see that each is always occupied by some one 
to whom God's truth may be presented. 

These significant facts constitute only one 

of many evidences of a new kind of recognition 

which the church of our day is giving to the 

Sunday school. We are living in a time when 

9 



The Teaching Problem 



The School on 
the Firing Line 



Books and Books 
and Books 



Too Much Taken 
for Granted 



the virility of the church is measured by its 
Sunday school activities as much as if not more 
than by anything- else. The Sunday school is 
on the firing- line in the effort to take the world 
for the Master. How important, then, 
that we learn all that may be learned 
about the doing- of the special work to 
which so many energies are bent, and the re- 
sults of which are so vital to the dearest inter- 
ests of the human race ! 

The literature of the Sunday school is 
becoming- voluminous — even burdensome. 
Books are being- added to books with a 
rapidity which renders it imprac- 
ticable for the representative 
Sunday school worker to keep 
in close touch with the many new thing-s 
coming* from the press. Nearly all of 
these books are written for the special benefit 
of the teacher, who is deriving- much g-ood 
from them, although possibly somewhat con- 
fused by their great variety of recommend- 
ations. Written by masters in the art of 
teaching-, they are invaluable to the great 
work which these masters would promote. 

Recognizing all this, I will be pardoned for 
the suggestion that as a rule writers on Sun- 
day school topics are taking altogether too 
much for granted. With an occa- 
sional exception, their admirable 
books do not begin at the beginning. 
There is a tendency to give undivided atten- 
tion to the framework of teaching, and to the 
construction of a symmetrical roof, assuming 
10 




Things Overlooked 

that the foundation has been properly laid. 
The schemes and plans for placing- the lesson 
before the class, of which so much of our lit- 
erature consists, are of unquestionable use and 
value, but at best are only secondary, and, as 
compared with some other considerations, only 
incidental. 

There are duties connected with the mission 
of the teacher which in importance altogether 
eclipse actual pedagogic work. There are pre- 
liminaries which must not be ignored ; 

there are conditions which must be * Real Reason 

. , - , . , for Failure 

met ; there is much work which must 

be done — all before the class room is ap- 
proached. Indeed some of these things are 
even outside of all preparation for class work. 
As completely as many teachers fail within 
the class hour, there are many more who fail 
outside of it. Failure in class is usually be- 
cause of failure outside. 

We sometimes fail to do the good work of 
which we are capable because we undervalue 
its importance. Sometimes the very magni- 
tude of an undertaking almost paralyzes us 
in the beginning. Sometimes the 

trouble lies in our antipathv to per- Misapprehension 

Bars Our Way 
sonal exertion. I believe, though, that 

in the work of teaching we are apt to start out 
with a wrong conception of what is before us, 
and that this, more than anything else, bars 
our way. 

I do not want to unduly magnify the causes 
of failure of which so many teachers are mani- 
festly unconscious — but I cannot regard these 
11 



The Teaching Problem 

seemingly little things as otherwise than para- 
mount. They are all the more important be- 
cause the usefulness of a majority of even our 
best teachers is impaired by failure to fully 
recognize them. 

The succeeding pages will therefore be de- 
voted mainly to a discussion of what I assume 
to be basal considerations in the life and work 
of the teacher, touching in less detail 
A Searchlight n class . room work . I do this all t he 

Quest 

more gladly because the latter field 

has been so splendidly covered. The reader 
who is indisposed to look into these basal 
things, and to have a searchlight thrown upon 
some causes of general Sunday school failure 
for which the teacher alone is responsible, 
should close the book right here. Everybody 
else is invited to join in the quest. 
12 



CHAPTER II. 




THE TEACHER AS AN ELEMENT IN 
ORGANIZATION. 

IT IS not necessary in our day to ar- 
gue that in order to do effective 
work the Sunday school must 
§^ be a thoroughly organized 
body. This principle is now 
as well established as is the Sun- 
day school itself. There is a prev- 
alent failure, though, to grasp all the 
salient points necessary to a strong or- 
ganization, which failure is illustrated 
in the way the teacher is usually looked upon 
in this connection. It is understood that the 
officers must stand together and be in the 
closest touch with each other if good work is 
to be done. The teacher is regarded 
as in a sense a part of the same offi- 
cial whole, but moving in an outer cir- 
cle, and with only a quasi responsibility in the 
premises. He [For convenience I will use the 
masculine pronoun in most cases in speaking 
of the teacher] feels that he is occupying a 
field of his own, with some sort of relation to 
the Sunday school body itself, but is not taught 
that one of the strongest elements in his use- 
fulness is contingent upon the closeness of the 
tie which binds him to the common center. 
13 



Strictly in the 
Inner Circle 



The Teaching Problem 

This is a mistake. The teacher should be 

always, exactly and actively identified with 

everything done by the school as a body. 

When it can be said of him that he is in this 

position he is then just where he should be. 

Otherwise he never is in place — never ready 

for the best work. There are no weak points 

in a Sunday school as an organization 

There is Only when its officers and teachers are all 

One Right Place . 

and always thus m line. It is equally 

true that there is no perfect organization and 
no adequate outcome when any appreciable pro- 
portion of them are out of line. 

The " independent' ' teacher, who holds 
aloof from everything, or grudgingly and 
sometimes grumblingly takes a listless inter- 
est in it all, is a disorganizing element. How 
much may be expected of a military 

he Independ- organization whose captain and lieu- 
ent Disorganize!* ; * 

tenants are always to be counted on, 

but whose non-commissioned officers are dis- 
posed to act each for himself? A Sunday 
school with a corps of independent teachers is 
in exactly the same position. 

The union in purpose and effort must not 

be merely nominal, either. You cannot fasten 

a framework together by shouting to the parts 

" Be united ! " Those who would work together 

effectively in the Sunday school must be 

" members of one body," just as posi- 

No Uncertainty tiyel ag are the members described 

Admissible . _; •».-* m« 

in Romans XII. The organization 

must be strong and thoroughly sympathetic 

and symmetrical throughout, and teachers 

14 



Practical Support 

must contribute the greatest element in this 

strength. 

How may such organization be made most 

effective ? The very first and most important 

thing- is to hold up the officers' hands, as those 

of Moses were sustained by Aaron and Hur. 

Stand by your superintendent through and 

through. Embrace his plans. Warm his heart 

by your sympathy. If he is a poor 

stick of a superintendent his plans H *l lding ^ p * he 
r r Officers' Hands 

will all the more need your support. 

Do not hold aloof from him, but choose a bet- 
ter one next time if you can. If he is a good 
one there should be a keen satisfaction in fall- 
ing in with his suggestions. In any case your 
superintendent will be worth several times as 
much to your school when heartily supported 
and assisted as he possibly could be under any 
other conditions. The teachers of a school 
which has never enjoyed the good following 
such united action and such official 

support should try the effect of a sur- uc _ 

. r , • « • / ,i • , , ^ Needed Funeral 

prise of this kind on their leader. The 

joy will not kill him, but the action will kill 

something else in your school, which should be 

buried beyond possibility of resurrection. 

Giving the secretary the same kind of 

hearty encouragement looks like a small affair 

— but just try it once, and you will be 

able to furnish a recipe for making a A Move on th# 

a 4. Aii,- ^ a Secretary 

good secretary. Ask him, as a body, 

how he wants your records kept, and then 

scrupulously keep them in just that way. You 

will thus create a pride and interest in his 

15 



The Teaching Problem 

duties which will materially help the work of 
the school. Ways in which the hands of the 
other officers may be upheld will occur to 
teachers who really want to know. Light upon 
this phase of duty is always available for those 
who care to have it. 

Another way of employing- organization to 

advantage is for the officers to go before the 

school and teachers before their classes in 

every instance with unanimous action 

Make All Action Qn aU matters of sc hool policy and 

Unanimous . ._., ' , _ 

practice. The teachers and officers in 

council should discuss measures of every kind 
in the best of spirit, and when a decision is 
reached let the minority, if there be one, fall 
in heartily with the majority in making the 
adopted measures effective, without letting it 
be known that there was a minority. Nothing 
is more demoralizing than for teachers to go 
out from such a meeting as "kickers." The 
spirit which prompts such action is poison to 
a Sunday school class. 

Why not make the Sunday school the resist- 
less power which it may be when all, " with one 
accord," are working for one thing ? Why not 
fall in, heart and soul, and thus mul- 

Make the School u « aU of the school r s possibilities ? 

Irresistible .,_ ., ......... 

"But the superintendent don't suit 

me — and I think that other plan would be bet- 
ter." Granted — but if you should go into your 
secular work Monday morning with the idea of 
thus pouting like a spoiled child on the ap- 
pearance of the first thing of a disagreeable 
character, you would go out of business before 
16 



One Central Purpose 



night. I belong - to a church session whose 
action is always made unanimous, and we have 
never in a single instance failed to find equal 
unanimity on the part of the congrega- 
tion in adopting our plans. 

All the work done in the Sunday school 
is for a purpose. When everything else 
is brushed aside the purpose stands out 
clear. No one is out of touch with this 
purpose, though many are out of touch 
with its execution. Why not take hold 
of it heartily ? This of all ways is the 
easiest way. There is no use in trying 
to do a thing about right, when it is no 
harder to try to do it exactly right. Helping 
fully is only a step beyond helping partly. 
The difference in effort in the two cases is 
inconsequential. The difference in results is 
incalculable. 

17 





CHAPTER III. 

THE TEACHER A SUBORDIN- 
ATE. 




FFECTIVE work cannot be done by 
any combination of people who are 
not led. Nobody can be led with- 
out having- a leader. No leader can 
accomplish anything- substantial 
who is not followed, or whose following- is not 
subordinate. Every one besides the 
The Necessity i ea( j er i s j n a sen se a subordinate, and 
of Leadership 

the efficiency of leadership is handi- 
capped or promoted according- as this subordi- 
nation is nominal or real, partial or complete. 
The g-eneral principle thus enunciated is no 
more true of anything- else than it is of the 
Sunday school. 

This does not mean that leadership is 
necessarily autocratic — far from it. In the 
Sunday school it is representative authority. 
A power above the superintendent, and which 
is really vested in the church itself, deleg-ates 
to that officer a peculiar responsibility, in the 
successful discharge of which he is wholly de- 
pendent upon the voluntary action of others, 
to whom he in turn is commissioned to dele- 
gate special responsibilities. Subordination 
in his case is recognized as loyalty, and its op- 
18 



A Matter of Attitude 

posite is unqualifiedly and altogether properly 
pronounced disloyalty. On this point all will 
agree. In the same way the implicit following 
of his leadership is loyalty to the or- 
ganization of which he is the lawfully A Q uestion of 

Loyalty 
constituted chief — something which 

can be said of no other course adopted by any 
member of the school. The fact that subordi- 
nation in the Sunday school is voluntary puts 
every member on his or her personal honor, 
and doubles the obligation of fealty to an officer 
who is often charged with failure simply be- 
cause lack of this fealty among those from 
whom he would naturally first expect it has 
made success impossible. 

That member of the Sunday school is use- 
less who is not subordinate. Nay, more — that 
member is a positive hindrance who is not 
subordinate. How much more is this true of 
the member who is a teacher! Just as the pos- 
sibility of usefulness is many-fold increased by 
virtue of class leadership, so the evil 

resultant from insubordination is mul- Usefulness and 

Subordination 
tiplied beyond measure by the same 

circumstance. The attitude of the teacher to- 
ward everything in any way affecting the Sun- 
day school is a matter of the greatest conse- 
quence. The teacher, whether he will or no, is 
the exemplar of everything which can make or 
mar the institution. He cannot get away from 
the responsibility — for it is planted firmly and 
fixedly upon his shoulders with his acceptance 
of his official relation to the school. 

The teacher's great opportunity for strength- 
19 



The Teaching Problem 

ening the school lies in the perfect exemplifica- 
tion of subordination. What possibilities lie 
within reach of the school all of whose teach- 
ers are active, positive supporters of 
When Teachers scho ol authority ! Such schools know 

Support Authority 1 .., 1 - ,. ' , .. . _ 

little of the disturbing- influences 

which so often render Sunday school efforts 
abortive. The refractory pupil finds no pat- 
tern of impropriety, and unconsciously imi- 
tates higher ideals. In the same way the many 
unpleasant accompaniments of Sunday school 
work as we find it one by one disappear. 

The case is entirely different, though, when 

the teacher is a Sunday school anarchist, as 

that teacher certainly is who ignores or defies 

Sunday school leadership. Schools 

A Sunday School w i t hout number are languishing, dy- 

Anarchist . «. . .. - . .. 

ing, or living at a poor, dying rate, ' 

because here and there over their rooms, in 
charge of classes, are men and women to whom 
the plans and directions of the superintendent 
mean nothing, and to whom the special aims 
and purposes of the organization are a dead 
letter. Many who read this paragraph will be 
horrified to find themselves thus classed, who 
must, on reflection, acknowledge the justice of 
the arraignment. So many of the mistakes 
we make in the Sunday school are born, just 
as the unconscious Sunday school marplot is 
born, of want of reflection ! The trouble is 
that we do not think teaching as we think 
banking, and farming, and bookkeeping, and 
building, and baking, and sewing, and house- 
hold management. 

20 




The Matter of 
Self Choosing 



Fitting Church Positions 

No church officer should be self chosen. 
No Sunday school officer should be self 
chosen. All will agree to these 
two propositions ; but when I 
say that no Sunday school 
teacher should be self 
chosen, how many will be 
equally prompt in their ex- 
pression of approval ? It is 
a glorious thing- for those interested in any line 
of church work to know that throughout the 
membership are earnest men and women who 
are saying- in their hearts, though per- 
sonally unobtrusive and not candidat- 
ing, " Here am I ; if it is best for all 
concerned, send me." But when one elbows 
his way to the front, jostling- every one else 
aside, and says, " Here am I, and I'm going 
whether sent or not," the case is altog-ether dif- 
ferent. This is just what uncounted thousands 
of Sunday school people are doing- to-day. 

The misconception about Sunday school 
teaching- which exists in the minds of many 
good people is astonishing-. Men and women 
who will promptly decline to undertake duties 
of almost any other kind on the ground of in- 
ability to perform them will serenely 
propose, without waiting- for invita- 
tion, to instruct bright children in 
matters about which they are themselves pro- 
foundly ignorant. The individual who would 
resent the teaching of mathematics to his chil- 
dren by one unable to master the principles of 
long division will volunteer without hesitation 
21 



They Should 
Know Better 



The Teaching Problem 

to instruct in a Bible which he himself too sel- 
dom opens, and with whose text and make-up 
he is altogether unfamiliar. Nor does the fact 
that the interests about which the children are 
to be instructed are not only the most important 
things they will meet with in this life, but will 
affect their welfare throughout eternity, seem 
to have much weight in the case. 

The self-chosen teacher is the greatest em- 
barrassment confronting the organizer of the 
Sunday school. It is not a question of ability 
to teach, or special qualification of any kind. 
There is a properly constituted author- 

A Straight .^ ^ Q p ass U p 0n these things, and for 

Road to Chaos 

individuals to attempt to settle them 

for themselves and for the school out of hand 
is subversive of every interest of the school. 
The legitimate end of the self-choosing idea is 
chaos, and chaos is too generally characteristic 
of the Sunday school. 

To come forward with a determination to 
teach, regardless of anybody or anything, is 
therefore altogether reprehensible. It is un- 
fortunate that people will even volunteer at all 
for such work. There is a very great 

Not a lace difference between a willingness either 

for Volunteers ~ 

felt or expressed and a pushing of ones 

self into a position where the action of the of- 
ficer in charge can be construed only as either 
an acceptance or a rejection. The one is a 
very great help ; the other is as great a hind- 
rance. The superintendent is of course glad 
to know that people are ready to help him ; but 
that willingness in a school with which he is 
22 



"Waiting for a Call 

acquainted may be understood or in some way 
indicated without placing him in the embar- 
rassing- situation of perhaps having- to ig-nore 
a kindly meant overture. The individual who 
will come forward before the school as the 
time for reorganization approaches, and an- 
nounce himself as ready to become superin- 
tendent, is sure to be reg-arded as furnishing- at 
least one positive proof of unfitness for the po- 
sition — and why should the teacher who pur- 
posely or inadvertently forestalls choice be 
looked upon in a different light ? 

No one should even undertake the forma- 
tion of a new class in Sunday school without 
consulting with and securing the approval of 
the superintendent. It may be relied 
on that this officer will never discour- ^\£*tf n C ^" 8e " 
age a movement of this kind which is 
in itself commendable, and that he is in a po- 
sition to see just why such an undertaking 
would sometimes be demoralizing and unad- 
visable. At all events the decision in such 
matters is within his prerogative. 

The observation of the reader will confirm 
the statement that a very large proportion of 
those who offer themselves as teachers are ut- 
terly unfit for the duties they would assume. 
The volunteers are not usually lacking in 
piety — indeed they are likely, from the 

standpoint of intention, to be among A Very Commo « 
iL , - . ,- . ,7 Volunteer Type 

the very best people in the church. 

They are filled with the idea, though, that they 

must be doing something — a truly good idea, 

by the way, the mistake lying in the selection 

23 



The Teaching Problem 

of the thing- to do. Every one else can see that 
the great opportunity of these people (and it is 
an opportunity for anyone) is to fall into the 
ranks of the school, and give it the always 
needed strength which is derived from the 
manifested willingness of possible leaders to 
learn from others the teachings of God's word. 
I would not say that the unwillingness of any- 
one to sit in a class is proof positive of unfit- 
ness to teach — but it is certainly strong pre- 
sumptive evidence of such unfitness. Is it safe 
to trust leadership to one who refuses to be led ? 
The persistent unretirable teacher rarely has 
a good class. The spirit which ignores author- 
ity has little regard for the rights of other 
teachers. This teacher very often proselytes 
right and left, keeps classes of an ap- 

A Center o proximately similar age with his own 

Insubordination. . „ -. ■ 

in a restless condition, creates discon- 
tent and jealousy in the minds of other and 
otherwise successful teachers, has a class which 
is always the center of insubordination in the 
school, and at best leads a shifting aggregation 
which counts for almost nothing and can be 
counted on for nothing in the work of the 
school. 

The class taught by this teacher is certain 

to dwindle, and usually becomes so small in 

time that nothing remains to be done except 

to unite it to some other class. This 

A Class would solve the problem under consid- 

Disintegrator 

eration were it not that the teacher so 

often starts in immediately, in his zeal to be 

useful, to form a new class. He may draw a 

24 



A Proper Arbiter 

pupil or two from other classes, and may pick 
up another or two from the outside — after 
which process of "building- up" the old story 
of disintegration and scattering- is certain to 
be repeated. Old Sunday school workers can 
perhaps recall instances in which this round of 
experience has been repeated several times in 
the life of a teacher. 

Availability is the natural arbiter in the 
choice of church and Sunday school officers of 
every kind. That which may be the best thing- 
for the Sunday school this year may be alto- 
gether out of place at another time. 
The possible incumbent of any office AvwlaWlity Regu- 

a. - j-> a j. j lating Choice 

is not in position to understand as 

well as the combined judgment of the church, 
or the judgment of the church when expressed 
through a chosen official or tribunal, the mat- 
ter of personal availability for a special trust. 
The church may err, the constituted tribunal 
may err, the superintendent of the Sunday 
school may err — but either is much more cer- 
tain to know what should be done than is the 
individual who is disposed to remove from all 
of these the prerogative of making the choice 
in question. 

In " The Organized Sunday School " are set 
forth my reasons for believing- that the ap- 
pointment of teachers should rest wholly with 
the superintendent. I will only add 
here that the efficiency of the Sunday Selecting, Shift- 
school is completely balked if teachers 
cannot be selected, shifted and retired just as 
officers are selected, shifted and retired. The 
25 



The Teaching Problem 

Sunday school cannot afford to have in it any 
class of especially privileged, unreachable, un- 
manageable workers. Higher work of any 
kind is impossible with refractory teachers. 
The idea of a graded system, for instance, is 
Utopian, if the teacher is not amenable to con- 
trol. 

Fellow teacher, I cannot close this chapter 
without urging full, complete, unreserved sub- 
ordination. Do not let it be relative or condi- 
tioned. It will only mean what it 
Unconditional should when it is absolute. Your po- 
Subordination . . ' * 

sition in the matter will be all the 

nobler and all the more helpful because it is of 
your own motion. The leader may be quite 
short of all he should be — he is often monu- 
mentally so. You can nullify to quite an ex- 
tent the results of his incompetence, though, 
if you will look through the individual to the 
office which he holds, and follow the ideal 
leader who should be there. Will you do so ? 
26 




CHAPTER IV. 

THE TEACHER AS A PARTICIPANT. 



'HE Sunday school teacher who is out 
of sympathy with the school man- 
agement is essentially a misfit. A more 
unsatisfactory condition than for a num- 
ber of teachers to be thus unsympathetic 
can hardly be imagined. Such a condi- 
tion is the natural and prolific source of nearly 
all school troubles. Whether lack of sympathy 
is manifested in open antagonism, or 
is simply passive discontent, the de- The Lack of 
plorable result is the same. Indeed Sympathy 
frank opposition is the more hopeful of the two 
situations, since it usually results in a crisis 
and a new start. Should the manifestation 
take the other form, however, and thus be too 
indefinable to be successfully combatted, it 
may drag along as a school handicap for many 
years. 

Anyone can see that either of these teachers 
is out of place when in charge of a class. The 
teacher who, though not antagonistic, 
is wholly unsympathetic, and equally Three Unsatis- 
non-participant, is only a few degrees factory Types 
less a hindrance to the successful work of the 
school. Another class of teachers, in a sense 
27 



The Teaching Problem 



A Part in the 
Exercises 



Why the School 
Stands Back 



sympathetic, but utterly oblivious of the im- 
portance of participation, is a still milder type 
of the Sunday school stumbling-block. 

The special form of non-participation to 
which I just now refer is the refusal to take 
part in the general exercises of the school. 
These exercises form an essential part of the 
work of every Sunday school. The school 
spirit, the esprit de corps, depends more 
upon general participation in these 
than upon any other phase of school 
work. Good singing, good reading, a spirit of 
responsiveness — one and all — must be secured, 
or every other desirable good will in some de- 
gree fail of realization. 

Is your school unresponsive ? If so, it is 
only another way of saying that your teachers 
are unresponsive. There is, and there need be, 
no other explanation. This tells the whole 
story. When teachers take part heart- 
ily and as a body the inevitable result 
is that a large proportion of the school 
will of itself fall into line; and this, supple- 
mented by a little persistent work on the part 
of teachers among the pu- 
pils, will quickly solve the 
problem of participation. 

Pity the superintendent 

.- £. who, as he looks over 

gjESj his school, sees a teacher 

— here and there sitting 

- like the well-known 

wooden Indian in front of 

his class! Pity the teacher 

28 




Anyone Can Assist 

who has no higher appreciation of privilege 
and duty! Pity the class whose teacher is thus 
a stick! Pity everybody who attempts to carry 
any forward school movement past this ob- 
stacle! 

There can be no adequate apology for in- 
difference on the part of the Sunday school 
teacher to anything in any way affecting the 
interests of the school. Much less is there any 
valid reason for ignoring the claims 
of the school in the direction indi- Indifferen ^ e Always 

Inexcusable 
cated. A rare instance is now and 

then found where a teacher is really unable to 
sing — but this inability is pleaded as an excuse 
many times when it is wholly unsupported by 
facts. Any teacher, though, can read, and any 
teacher can take part in the responsive exer- 
cises. It is only fair to say in this connection 
that teachers are often comparatively blame- 
less for failing of participation, simply be- 
cause the superintendent has either made no 
effort to secure it, or has infused so little sys- 
tem into his program as to defeat his own pur- 
pose. Yet this is exceptional, and the teacher 
who wants to be helpful in getting the school 
into responsive shape, and is sufficiently 
thoughtful to follow up this aim, will glad- 
den the superintendent's heart and contribute 
substantially to the end so much to be desired. 

The work of the negative teacher 
is depressing from whatever stand- The Cold ' Ne e ative 

• i 'i - -• »-rt, . Teacher 

point it may be viewed. There is no 
place in the Sunday school for teachers who lead 
in nothing ; whose classes possibly take part to 
29 



The Teaching Problem 

some extent in what is going- on, but do so if at 
all in spite of and not because of their leaders ; 
whose attitude toward their surroundings af- 
fords no cue to those who are disposed to assist ; 
who furnish no inspiration or encouragement 
to anybody in any way. 

On the other hand, there is rare inspiration 

in the atmosphere of the school whose teachers 

are for everything and in everything affecting 

their common work; whose attitude 

-For- Things and and actions are positive and full of 

"In" Things . , r . « 

meaning ; whose classes look to them 

confidently for leadership, and never look in 
vain ; who are always alert, ready, quickly re- 
sponsive. That kind of a corps of teachers 
(unlike the corpse of teachers before men- 
tioned) will make a good superintendent out of 
any consecrated individual who is capable of 
being encouraged and is willing to carry his 
part. There is a prevalent opinion 
Superintendent- that the « t fc Sunday 

school into fine shape is to begin with 
a model superintendent. Omitting the word 
"only" this assumption is correct. Another 
way and in some respects a surer way to se- 
cure the same end is for the teachers to bear a 
hand, as they may, in the making of such a 
superintendent. 

Almost any reasonable Sunday school ideal 
is realizable with such teachers. Difficulties 
vanish as if by magic before their heartiness 
of participation. Indifference above them and 
below them in the school organization gradu- 
ally disappears. It is a great achievement to 
30 



Training the Classes 

find one strong-, general leader, but it is a 
greater one to find a dozen or a score of thor- 
oughly participating teachers, who will leaven 
as inany classes with the spirit of responsive- 
ness. 

In the teacher's life self-sacrifice of one kind 
and another is called for on every hand. There 
is perhaps a little, though certainly a very lit- 
tle, of this in many instances in de- 
termining to carry out the spirit of * Matter of Petty 

-r^ -^ Sacrifice 

these paragraphs. Few sacrifices are 

more positively called for, however, and few 
will be more certainty productive of good. An 
important part of the teacher's duties is in- 
volved in training the classes in participation, 
and the first step in this training is the active 
leadership of the natura leader. 
31 




CHAPTER V. 

THE TEACHER'S RELATION To OTHE* 
TEACHERS. 

'HI£ fellowship of Sunday school teachers 
may be, and should be, one of the strong- 
est of social ties outside of the home circle. 
It should be broad, sympathetic, helpful. It 
should not only be a source of strength for the 
teacher in his work, but should be a source of 
power in the school, and should be so 
A Source of Strength patent to observers as to favorably 
and Power . 

affect the standing- of the school in 

the community. No matter how many are 
added to the corps of teachers, the product 
should be one. It is an ideal condition in a 
Sunday school w T hen its teachers are in the 
closest of personal touch, trusting each other 
implicitly, consulting freely with each other 
about their mutual interests, and making com- 
mon cause in the building and development of 
the school. 

Unfortunately there is little that is ideal 

about the representative Sunday school. In 

this, that and the other feature it too 

O, that Marring In- often fallg sh()rt Qf eyen R fairl gatis _ 
compatibility! 

factory character, and this for reasons 
which do not lie wholly on the surface. A great 
deal of that which mars and hinders, and some- 

32 



The Teaching Problem 

times defeats, is directly traceable, however, to 
lack of harmony in school counsels and to per- 
sonal incompatibility among- teachers. In no 
department of church work is perfect harmony 
more essential, and yet, sad to say, in no place 
unless in the church choir is it less likely to be 
found. 

Many teachers surround themselves with an 
atmosphere of exclusiveness as far as other 
teachers are concerned, and even hold 
aloof from the superintendent in mat- The chm of Ex " 

. . -, clusiveness 

ters about which consultation should 
be frank and frequent. Petty jealousies some- 
times assert themselves, giving* rise to compli- 
cations of a most embarrassing- nature. The 
spirit of discord, finding- a lodg-ment among- the 
teachers, is a constant menace to the peace of 
the school, and blights ever} r thing it touches. 
A prolific source of troubles of this charac- 
ter is the proselyting- spirit so common among 
teachers of a certain type. It is not my obser- 
vation that a very large proportion of 
Sunday school teachers are incurably The Proselyting 
possessed of this spirit, but its mani- 
festation is a disturbing- element of such 
potency that one or two persistent teachers 
can often set an entire school at log-g-erheads 
by their proselyting- work. Class building in 
the hands of such teachers means little else 
than the tearing down of other classes. You, 
reader, have known teachers who seem to con- 
sider it their personal prerogative to appro- 
priate everything in sight. No considerations 
of courtesy, fairness, expediency, or the condi- 
2 33 



Everything One "Way 

tion and needs of pupils, could be made to have 
any weight in the premises. 

There are teachers who not only try to force 
everything- in the school which is at all avail- 
able within the ranks of their own classes, but 
who resent all efforts at recruiting which do not 
turn the results into the same channel. The 
only serious Sunday school scolding I 
An Unmerited eyer rece i ve £ was f or having been 

Scolding • . _ . . ... 

first and successful in my invitation 
to a young married pair to enter my bible class, 
composed of young people of both sexes, and 
the only class in the school admitting them in 
this way. The scolding was administered by a 
teacher in the presence of the new pupils them- 
selves, who were naturally disgusted, and who 
because of the unwarranted occurrence were 
lost to the school, although they had just 
united with the church to which the school 
belonged. As bad as this was, I have known 
instances in the experience of other teachers 
which were even Imore aggravating in char- 
acter, if possible less pardonable in every way, 
and much more deplorable in results. 

I have no hesitation in saying that no prose- 
lyting teacher, or obtrusively selfish teacher, 
ever rendered good service to any Sunday 
school. Bven the apparent good sometimes 
accomplished by these often zealous people is 

more than counteracted by the per- 

A Really am- nicious unavoidable consequences of 
aging Service . 

their utter lack of courtesy toward and 

sympathy with other teachers. The influence 

of such teachers is never salutary, their classes 

34 



The Teaching Problem 

are never substantial, and their entire line of 
purpose and action is subversive of the welfare 
and prosperity of the school. 

A precautionary measure is to provide for 
the assignment of all recruits to their proper 
classes by the superintendent or some 
other officer designated for the pur- l h * Locatin e of 

_ . to r School Recruits 

pose. This may be done along- lines of 
age, and to some extent but not absolutely with 
respect to the matter of attainment. The diffi- 
culties in measuring* by the latter standard are 
that attainment is larg-ely a matter of guess- 
work in sizing- up a new pupil, and that few 
are willing- to enter a school on any basis 
which will furnish an adequate test of bible 
scholarship. In a large school classes will nec- 
essarily practically parallel each other in the 
matter of age, a circumstance which is very 
embarrassing to the officer who attempts to 
make age the arbiter of the location of pupils. 
Besides, new pupils are often secured because 
of the attractiveness of special class associa- 
tion, who cannot with safety be arbitrarily 
located elsewhere. Expediency must therefore 
figure to some extent in the consideration of 
this very complex problem. For obvious rea- 
sons no plan of arbitral assignment can be 
made operative in the bible classes. Official 
class assignment cannot therefore be made 
either the absolute preventive or the 
absolute cure for proselyting. Itscura- A Necessar y He " 

^ - - ,. . roic Remedy 

tive possibilities are only relative, but 
if well managed its influence is very helpful. 
For proselyting there is but one remedy — the 
35 



The Teaching Problem 

absolute suppression of the practice — by per- 
suasive means if possible, by official action if 
necessary. 

What has been said must not be taken as in 
any way intended to discourage the broadest 
and most comprehensive recruiting- of the Sun- 
day school. Far from it ! Nothing will so gal- 
vanize a lifeless school as a general 
Recruiting as a re cruiting work which includes every 

Stimulus 

teacher and which draws liberally 
upon the latent energies of the church itself. 
There may even be generous emulation in 
recruiting, and there really must be if it is to 
be made broadly successful. No Sunday school 
will do as good class work as the working school ; 
none will be so faithful as the working school ; 
none will so bless the community as the working- 
school. Recruiting properly conducted is not 
only compatible with the best of feeling among 
teachers, but is potently promotive of active 
harmony — a type of harmony which is infinitely 
superior to the variety which results from peo- , 
pie being too indifferent or too lazy to quarrel. 
What do I mean by active harmony ? I mean 
the harmony resulting from cooperative activ- 
ity. Every teacher should be a recruiting officer 
for the school, with a powerful consequent force 
of recruiting agents among the pupils. The re- 
cruiting having begun, now comes the 
An Inspiring tegt . Ag new pu ils are sec ured it 

Harmony A 

will be discovered that a large propor- 
tion of them are not especially suited to the 
classes which have brought them in, or at least 
would fit in better elsewhere. The one and only 
36 



Work as a Stimulus 

thing- to do in this case is to promptly and cheer- 
fully turn them over to the classes to which 
they are best suited, or to the assigning- officer 
for disposal. This is a glorious and inspiring 
work. No body of teachers who become filled 
with this spirit of mutual helpfulness can be 
otherwise than "members of one body." In- 
compatibility does not grow on such soil. 

The symmetry of a class is one of its strong 
points. The more nearly the members are sim- 
ilar in age and attainment the better. But 
symmetry means more than this : The 
more nearly the members are one in treating a Class 

, . Spirit 

aim and purpose the more symmetrical 
and effective is their union — for every class may 
be and should be a union. The possession of an 
exalted purpose which has become a class pur- 
pose is the source of what is known as " a class 
spirit ;" and a clearly defined, strong, whole- 
some, ag-gressive class spirit is one of the most 
powerful influences for good ever introduced 
into a Sunday school. I^est I do not have op- 
portunity to discuss this point elsewhere, let 
me say that the class spirit is the result of the 
teacher always having something inspiring for 
the class to do, and always leading the class in 
doing it. No one can say just what this tempor- 
ary or regular class work should be, without 
having a special class and special conditions in 
view. In one case it may for the time be class 
recruiting ; in another, a special effort for mis- 
sions ; in another, assisting in the building or 
furnishing of the church ; or it may be all of 
these in succession, or any other worthy and 
37 



The Teaching Problem 

stimulating work. The teacher, though, must 
in all of it be a motive power. 

A collection of such classes makes an ag- 
gressive, symmetrical Sunday school — an insti- 
tution which as a blessing in a community has 
no peer outside of a church of the same char- 
acter, and whose possibilities for good are as 
unlimited as is the possible reach of influence. 
Teacher, the problem is back to you again. 
The good things of which I have been speak- 
ing are contingent upon you and your fellows 
understanding, establishing and inain- 
Th"^ n s gCnt Good taining your natural and proper rela- 
tions to each other. If this sentence 
reaches your inner consciousness, is grasped in 
all its meaning, and is retained, the object of 
this chapter will have been accomplished. 
38 



CHAPTER VI. 



FAITHFULNESS TO OUTWARD DUTIES. 




T 



The Inner and the 
Outer Life 



•HE real life, the best life, the 
higher life of the teacher is 
of course the inner life. This 
life is the guiding- hand, the motive 
power, the anchor to windward in all 
that the teacher is and does. The 
outer life, though — the life which 
men see and by which they measure us and all 
we represent— bears such an important rela- 
tion to the Sunday school that I feel 
moved to devote a few paragraphs to 
some considerations respecting it. 
When the position of the teacher is remem- 
bered, together with the fact that he is always 
handling plastic material, and is constantly 
surrounded by imitative beings, I am sure that 
my object will be understood. 

In the first place, the teacher must not only 
be full of heart-loyalty to the school itself, but 
this loyalty must be so obvious as to impress 
the keen-eyed observers of whom he 

,_., ... < _ Conspicuous 

is the leader. The preceding chap- 
ters have indicated a number of ways 
in which loyalty may be manifested, and by no 
means the least of the reasons for its manifesta- 
tion is its incidental effect upon the class. A 
39 



Fer- 



vent Loyalty 



The Teaching Problem 

quasi sentiment of this kind rarely permanently 
misleads anybody, much less those with whom 
the teacher has to deal. It must be genuine and 
always in evidence, or it will count for little. 

The teacher must, as far as circumstances 
are under human control, be always at the post 
of duty on Sunday morning. It is a very low 
type of devotion to a class which will not stand 
the strain of pushing other things aside fifty- 
two times in a year for the sake of the class. 
Indeed such weak regard for a class is not rata- 
ble as devotion. I have observed that teachers 
with whom class service is heart serv- 

intXrabfe 7 ice are models of regularity. On the 

other hand, teachers who are not reg- 
ularly in their places furnish every indication 
that the work in which they are engaged has 
never reached their hearts. It may be said with 
perfect assurance that the teacher who earn- 
estly desires to be regular usually accomplishes 
that end, and that it is a rare instance in which 
irregularity is not the natural manifestation of 
indifference. These are foundation facts, con- 
firmed by evidence of every kind. 

The irregular teacher is a 
demoralizing influence. Such 
latent faithfulness as a class 
may possess finds in this unreli- 
able teacher a constant challenge 
to unfaithfulness. More classes 
are injured than are built up by 
such teachers ; and yet well- 
meaning Christians will thus 
go on from year to year build- 
40 




Three Vacant Posts 



Vacation Time 
Indifference 




ing up with one hand and tearing" down with 
the other— and wondering- why the work they 
have in charge fails to grow and prosper. 

On a recent Sunday morning I noticed three 
teachers in the school with which I am con- 
nected, and for all of whom I have the highest 
personal esteem, coming in after the Sunday 
school hour, and only in time for the preaching 
service. No one of the three lived more than a 
few minutes' walk from the church. Neither 
had made any provision, for a substi- 
tute. It was summer vacation time, 
and many members of the school were 
away from home. Each of these teachers had 
a fair nucleus for a class, and each might as 
well have said to the few faithful who were 
there: "I could have been on hand an hour 
and a half earlier, of course; but I knew a 
number would be away, and I did not care 
enough for the rest of you to put myself to in- 
convenience to meet you. Going to Sunday 
school is to some extent a matter of personal 
convenience with me, and as I am your leader 
and example it is of course all right for you to 
look at it in the same way." 
^ What else could the pupil who 
was present at both services de- 
duce from the circumstance ? 

A hackneyed Sunday school 
theme which cannot be over- 
looked just here is punctuality. In " The Or- 
ganized Sunday School" I said: "Tardiness 
is absolutely intolerable in an officer or teacher, 
and is reprehensible in the pupil." I would re- 
41 




1F\ 



The Teaching Problem 

peat this here with all possible emphasis. When 

it is remembered that a difference of fifteen 

minutes in the time of starting from home 

would place the average tardy teacher 

A Very Bad c i ea rly ahead of time, with a margin 
to spare, and that this difference made 
only once a week would completely revolution- 
ize the position of the teacher in this matter, 
one can hardly refrain from crying " Shame!" 
to the delinquents. There are uncounted thou- 
sands in this class of Sunday school workers 
who are thus oblivious of the efforts of super- 
intendents to correct the evil of tardiness. 
There can be no reasonable excuse for the 
teacher who is habitually behind time, any 
more than there can be a reasonable question 
as to the injury his pernicious habit is inflict- 
ing on the school. 

The teacher should of course be a regular 

and liberal contributor to the cash offerings of 

the school. I put regularity before liberality, 

not because it is of more consequence (although 

I believe it is), but because of its edu- 

A Model in cationa l effect on the c l ass . The pu- 

Liberality 

pils are not necessarily aware of the 

amount of a contribution, but are aware of the 

fact of a contribution having been made, or not 

made, by the teacher. One of the lessons to be 

taught in the Sunday school is the privilege 

and duty of giving, and this lesson should be 

exemplified before the pupils' eyes. If the 

teacher is a liberal giver the lesson all the 

more impresses the probable church supporters 

of the future. 

42 



Under the Pupils' Eyes 

The pupil who remains after Sunday school 
for church should always see his teacher there. 
The lesson of the duty of attending- the public 
services of the sanctuary may well be incorpo- 
rated in the regular instruction of the class, 
and should certainly find frequent pla.ce there ; 
but the concrete lesson is the unfail- 
ing- presence of the teacher himself at Attending Church 

. Services 

these services. From the standpoint 

of example, leaving- other and g-reater consid- 
erations aside, the pupil should know that the 
teacher is reg-ular in attendance at the weekly 
prayer meeting-. To know that the teacher is 
equally faithful to the teachers' meeting- is also 
an incidental inspiration to the pupil ; for it is 
evidence of the teacher's interest in the class, 
and of his desire to learn all he can that may 
be helpful in serving- the class. 

I have spoken of attendance at public wor- 
ship, the prayer meeting- and the teachers' 
meeting-, from the secondary motive of afford- 
ing- a g-ood example. The hig-her rea- 
sons for this need not be repeated * he Teachers ' 
here. However, emphasis should be 
placed upon attendance at the teachers' meet- 
ing-. This meeting- is established for a purpose, 
is of vital importance in connection with a high 
class of work in any school, and should never 
be ignored. It is only an occasional school that 
g-ets out of this meeting- any considerable pro- 
portion of the good there is in it, for the com- 
bined reason that the superintendent usually 
does not sufficiently emphasize its value, and 
that the majority of teachers utterly fail to 
43 



The Teaching Problem 

recognize it as having any claims upon their 
attention. The short-sightedness of both offi- 
cers and teachers just here is greatly to be de- 
plored. 

The teacher should carefully refrain from 
what are known as " the doubtful amusements." 
These are usually spoken of as doubtful be- 
cause of the question of impropriety involved ; 
but the qualifying word could as well 
Doubtful be employed because it is rarelv that 

Amusements „ „ . a _ - „ . __ . . 

any but a doubtful class of Christians 
have any question about them. The matter of 
doubt itself, though slight, should be sufficient 
to condemn these amusements, and I take it for 
granted that the consecrated Sunday school 
worker will agree with me when I say that the 
theater, the card table and the dancing hall 
should be eschewed /^r se. What does it matter 
that you may be able to say, " I am strong, and 
they will not hurt me," when St. Paul has said, 
"If meat make my brother to offend I will eat 
no meat while the world standeth ? " If stum- 
bling-blocks must be placed before the youth of 
the Sunday school let the world place them ; we 
cannot afford to have them set up by those who 
are ostensibly pointing the same youth to the 
Ivainb of God. 

The teacher who is always in doubt as to 
whether it is proper to do this or to go to that 
is not a safe teacher. If any individual any- 
where should be sure of the ground on which he 
stands it is the instructor of youth. The idea 
is sometimes advanced in Sunday school organ- 
ization that the weak-kneed and careless Chris- 
44 



A Pattern of What? 

tian should be given a class in order to 
strengthen his uncertain character or to keep 
him from openly discrediting- his profession. 
Sunday school managers who could not be in- 
duced to do a similar thing- in their daily busi- 
ness, and who would refuse employment to the 
same people on moral grounds, will sometimes 
press the matter of installing them as teachers! 
Can any vSunday school policy be more thor- 
oughly indefensible ? 

Bringing a whole lot of truth into the scope 
of a single paragraph, let us say that the 
teacher, among other things, stands before the 
pupil as a pattern. The responsibility which 
this fact involves is great, but it cannot be 
avoided, or shifted, or ignored. The 
pupil naturally and rightfully associ- ™ e e £* f * 8 ° nand 
ates the teacher and the lesson coming 
from his lips in such a way that the one must 
in some way and in some degree comport with 
the other, or the lesson had been better un- 
taught. The things which are taught get 
much of their value from the connection of the 
teacher with them. These things are to be 
lived in that pattern life, as are also all of the 
things which make up the relation of the pat- 
tern to the Sunday school. It was at the Inter- 
national Sunday School Convention at Atlanta 
that a speaker, impersonating" a pupil address- 
ing a teacher, said in substance : " How can I 
regard what you say when I see what you are ? " 
The living by the teacher of some sort of 
approach to the life to which he is pointing 
others must not be spasmodic. Neither may 
45 



The Teaching Problem 



No Spasmodic 
Faithfulness 



his allegiance to his Sunday school and his 
faithfulness to its duties be anything* else than 
an every-day, always evident reality. 
In all discharge of visible duty he 
must be no less habitual than in the 
discharge of those other duties for which the 
world finds no standard of measurement on 
which absolute reliance can be placed. 

The teacher whose work is unvaryingly con- 
scientious and painstaking, who is all the time 
prayerfully wrestling with the difficult 
problems which the Sunday school class 
presents, often feels that he is groping 
in the dark. What must be said, then, 
of the teacher who is indifferent, 
thoughtless and careless of conse- 
quences? There can be no more 
pronounced case of the blind 
leading the blind, with 
the inevitable result of 
such leading. If in do- 
ing the best possible the way is not 
always clear, how culpable are we if we aim- 
lessly, heedlessly, unfaithfully do nothing ? 
46 





CHAPTER VII. 

THE TEACHER'S TENURE OF OFFICE. 

y" *HE} officers of a Sunday school once 
^.^^ a year turn over its management 
and interests to the school itself, 
giving it a free and untrammeled op- 
portunity of passing upon whether its 
affairs have been well conducted, and 
whether or not it is advisable to replace 
the old officers with new ones. The right of 
those guarding the school's interests to pass 
upon these things is never questioned. The old 
superintendent may think the welfare of the 
school demands his re-election ; but he is not in 
a position to know about that, and very proper- 
ly has only the voice of an individual 
in deciding the matter. The man who 
may have been the best possible choice 
last year may be altogether out of considera- 
tion this year, because of changes in himself, 
or in the school, or in his relation to the school, 
or new superintendent material may have been 
acquired or developed which places the whole 
important problem of leadership on a new 
plane. Who but the guardians of the school 
may know ? 

In what way does a teacher stand in a dif- 
ferent relation to his or her work ? Why should 
47 



Officers Chosen 
for a Year 



The Teaching Problem 

not the class in the same way be turned over to 
the school management once a year for the con- 
sideration of the problem of how its interests 
can best be served in the new year ? 
The Teacher's Of- The superintendent if worthy of the 

ficial Term f H ., , . 

name gives more study to these things 
than anybody else in the school, and his elec- 
tion is a declaration of confidence in his mo- 
tives and judgment. Is it not therefore not on- 
ly in bad taste, but a thwarting of the purposes 
of the school, for a teacher to virtually arro- 
gate to himself or herself the matter of the 
care of any class ? 

I have sometimes heard a teacher express 
the opinion that a class would go to pieces if a 
change in teachers were made, while knowing 

at the same time that not only were 
Some Needless the pupils desirous of a change, but 

that the class was absolutely suffer- 
ing for want of a change. In the same way 
teachers sometimes express the opinion that 
they should be relieved from duty and their 
successors appointed, in cases where nothing is 
more certain than that a change would be dis- 
astrous. 

If this has any meaning whatever it is that 
the teacher is not in position to know. The 
fact that a class is uniformly courteous to its 

teacher, and is never guilty of rude- 
The Teacher Can- ness or Q manifestation of dissat- 

not Know . 

isf action, is taken for evidence that no 

one else could as well preside over its interests. 

It is just as proper to say that an orchard is in 

the best of hands because it does not fail of 

48 



The Leader Must Decide. 

some show of fruit ; although there is every 
reason to believe that a better orchardist would 
not only largely increase the output of the 
whole, but would fill in with new trees and 
would bring into bearing others already on the 
ground but unproductive. The superintendent 
is on all sides of the problem; the teacher 
views it from a single standpoint. The super- 
intendent's judgment may be at fault, and 
often is ; but the end of the year is coming 
when the column of his mistakes will be footed 
up, and he may be rejected; while the self-sat- 
isfied teacher usually sits complacent and un- 
reachable. The inefficient superintendent's re- 
moval from responsibility is very properly pro- 
vided for ; but the inefficient teacher who holds 
on is an incubus too often considered impossi- 
ble of dislodgment from the shoulders of the 
school. 

What is the remedy ? Why it is that at the 
end of each school year the terms of all teach- 
ers in all grades should be considered at an end. 
It is sometimes preferred that teachers place 
their resignations in the hands of the superin- 
tendent-elect, although this should not be nec- 
essary. In case this plan is adopted, 
no resignation should in any case have The ° ne Po81tive 
"a string to it," but all resignations 
should be so hearty and sincere, and so ex- 
pressed, that no doubt of their sincerity, or of 
thorough acquiescence in their results, can be 
entertained. The superintendent with even 
the dullest perceptions can readily detect the 
spurious from the genuine in resignations, and 
49 




The Teaching Problem 

will understand just how far he can follow his 
own judgment without offending- dignity or 
hurting feelings. The proper thing, though, is 
to give him absolute jurisdiction in the case, 
and then hold him responsible for the results. 
Ivook here, hang-on-till-death teacher, 
in wondering why that superintendent 
of yours could not seem to man- 
age 3 r our school with success, 
did you ever reflect that per- 
sonally you have not given him half a 
chance at successful management? 

What is the result of this wholesale ending 
of terms ? Does it not unsettle everything, and 
produce chaos? Not at all. Did the election 
and installation of new officers, or the re-elec- 
tion of the old ones, produce chaos ? No more 
will the rehabilitation of the corps of teachers. 
The teach / er who has sincerely stepped 
into the / school ranks will not of course 
appear before the old class or a 
new one until reappointed or trans- 
ferred. In a great majority of cases, 
though, the superintendent is certain to 
call most of his teachers back to the po- 
sitions which they have just vacated. Such a 
recall having been made in a given case, how 
much better is the situation than before the 
resignation was tendered! The teacher has 
positive evidence that the superintendent is 
satisfied, and can fairly infer that the prefer- 
ences of the pupils have not been ignored. 
The pupils are glad of the reinstatement of 
the teacher whom they were perhaps fearful of 
50 





A Needed Opportunity 

losing", the teacher discovers a new element in 
the relationship, and the re-energizing and in- 
creased growth and usefulness of the 

class often dates exactly from this An improved 

Situation 
period. If not a single change in the 

corps of teachers is made, the positive good re- 
sulting from reappointment is a consideration 
of inestimable value. All are pleased, and the 
superintendent feels a responsibility for results 
which will bring forth his best efforts to assist. 
But there is a more positive good than this. 
An opportunity has been given to substitute, 
in a natural and easy way, the efficient for the 
inefficient, and to strengthen the school in its 
weakest points. A school is rarely 

found which does not need some such J h ^ Chance for 

Substitution 
substitutions. Transfers of teachers 

from one class to another are effected at this 
time more easily than at any other, as are also 
the division of old classes and the formation of 
new ones. The failure to reappoint a teacher 
is of course open to an inference which may 
not be agreeable to the ex-teacher, but it is one 
of those painful accompaniments of 
any forward movement in the school 
which, while to be deprecated, should 
receive no more attention than the 
failure to re-elect a superintendent. 
The cases are essentially similar. 
Besides, questions of re-election and re- 
appointment involve only relative consid- 
erations, which the true Christian cannot 
afford to magnify into sources of trouble. 
There are sometimes good reasons why 
51 




The Teaching Problem 

teachers of undoubted ability and high char- 
acter should for the time stand aside. It is 
in such cases simply a question of temporary 
availability and expediency. Sunday school 
service is a service full of contingen- 

Tenu^ 11 FiX6d Ci6S ' and ° nly thOSC Wh ° haV6 thC 
whole broad field before them are in 

position to give these contingencies adequate 
consideration ; and even they, though they may 
be consecrated and capable, are always con- 
fronted by the liability to mistakes in this 
phase of organization. How much more un- 
certain and unsatisfactory must be the judg- 
ment when the view is only from the inside, 
and bounded by the confines of the class room I 
The fixed tenure of office for every individual 
responsibly connected with the institution 
whose work we are together reviewing is the 
only solution to the problem which can be even 
approximately satisfactory in its character. 
52 



CHAPTER VIII. 




Some Prevalent 
Misfitting 



FITTING THE TEACHER TO 
THE CIvASS. 

*N THE Sunday school as we 
find it there is a great deal 
of aimlessness in the fitting* 
of teachers to the classes. 
The corps of teachers may 
be really the best available, but 
teachers are individually located larg-ely in a 
haphazard way, and sometimes wholly 
as matters of preference, whim or 
caprice. In making- assignments to 
classes preferences should be consulted as far as 
is thoroug-hly compatible with the best service, 
but beyond that limit should cease to be seri- 
ously considered. The proper distribution of 
teachers is only second in importance to their 
selection. 

All Sunday schools are to an extent graded, 
although the grading- may in any given in- 
stance be very crudely done. Some kind of 
assorting- of people into grades and 
classes must precede even the most 
primitive beginning-. As a school 
grows and develops this assorting- assumes 
more definite and effective shape, until the 
natural end is reached in the closely graded 
53 



Some Necessary 
Grading 



The Teaching Problem 

schools which here and there stand out as mod- 
els for all the rest. 

These natural and unavoidable divisions of 
pupils are meaning-less unless corresponding- 
attention is given to the assorting- of the in- 
structors who are to be placed over 
Assorting Teach- them# The one neC essity is directly 

ers Also 

consequent upon the other, althoug-h 
necessity is too often lost sight of when the 
assignment of teachers is reached. This is 
rank injustice to the pupil, and is a disorganiz- 
ing influence in the school. In the name of the 
pupil I want to protest against the thought- 
lessness which never suggests the slight read- 
justment which in many a school would greatly 
benefit all concerned. 

There are several clearly defined types of 
good teachers, and upon this fact our Sunday 
schools are to be congratulated. It is ever so 
much better than it would be if all were alike. 

There are teachers who are naturally 
Teachers of adapted to the successful handling of 

very small children, and who would 
not fit as well anywhere else as in the Primary 
department. Others are equally suited to grow- 
ing boys and girls, and there are still others 
whose best field is the bible class, Some 
teachers seem to be born leaders of boys, while 
there are others to whom girls should as cer- 
tainly be assigned. There are few as profitable 
lines of Sunday school study as the finding of the 
places and of the teachers who can best fill them. 
Perhaps three-fourths of all the teachers in 
the Sunday school are women. This has been 
54 



Both Sexes Needed 

made the pretext for a charge that the Sunday 

school is lacking- in virility, is consequently 

unattractive to men, is becoming more and 

more a woman's institution, and is 

contributing largely to womanizing Women in the 

. , /tv Majority 

and weakening the church. The 

charge is not a fair one, inasmuch as the Sun- 
day school is almost wholly under masculine 
management, as is also the church itself, 
women rarely being known in the latter insti- 
tution outside of the pew of the lay member. 
Without entering into a discussion of ques- 
tions of management, it is clear that it would 
be better if Sunday school teaching were more 
equally divided between the sexes. This is not 
because of the lack of excellence in women as 
teachers — for they are the best all- 
around teachers we have ; but it is be- Parit y in Sex 

, .... , Desirable 

cause there are exigencies in the work 

of teaching which make it desirable that there 
be more nearly a parity between the sexes in 
this work. Superintendents frequently over- 
look this, and fail to maintain this parity where 
it is possible to do so, because good women are 
ready and available, and it is too much "trou- 
ble" to get an increased number of equally 
competent men enlisted in the work. 

It is everywhere recognized, for obvious 
reasons, that women should have charge of the 
small children of both sexes. I recall 

an instance where a very busy busi- Suitable Primary 

Teachers 
ness man held the position of Primary 

principal for quite a while, and did most excel- 
lent and satisfactory work. The case, though, 
55 



The Teaching Problem 

was wholly exceptional. Woman's tact, pa- 
tience, superior resourcefulness and domestic 
experience have settled the question of the sex 
of Primary teachers beyond all cavil. On gen- 
eral principles the head of this department 
should be a mother. However, a properly qual- 
ified mother whose domestic duties will allow 
her to assume this burdensome responsibility 
is often hard to find. It therefore happens 
that a very large proportion of these teachers 
are unmarried women, whose work is so well 
done that it is not infrequently beyond crit- 
icism. In explanation of why Primary teach- 
ers are more uniformly satisfactory than any 
others it should be remembered that more work 
is being done in the training of Primary teach- 
ers than in all other Sunday school lines put to- 
gether. In fact teacher training for those in 
charge of older pupils is almost wholly a mat- 
ter for future development. 

After emerging from the Primary depart- 
ment pupils are everywhere, and very properly, 
separated on the line of sex, this separation be- 
ing maintained through the Junior and Inter- 
mediate grades and into the earlier Senior 
years. The same separation is some- 
Sex in Selecting times maintained in the bible classes, 
Teachers 

although the principle need not figure 

there except as a matter of convenience. Other 
things being equal, this separation naturally 
suggests a corresponding assortment as to sex. 
Such an assorting is undoubtedly preferable 
where conditions are feasible. I make this 
qualification because in this, as in many other 
56 



Close to the Model 

things connected with the Sunday school, so 
much " depends." Instances are not wanting 
in which women have proved to be such supe- 
rior teachers of boys and 3'ouug men, and in 
which men have been so successful with girls 
and young" women, that in these cases it would 
be folly to suggest an exchange of places. 
This does not affect the principle, though, that 
the natural order is as a rule the better order. 

In support of this position it is only neces- 
sary to refer to the teacher as the "pattern" 
set up in a previous chapter. As fine as may 
be the personality and character of the male 
teacher, the model of the girl in his class is es- 
sentially the sweet femininity and 

womanliness of the teacher of an ad- J he " Exam P le " 
... - e , . ... , for the Class 

joining class of boys ; while these 

boys in turn, though loving this same pattern 
of the girls, need in their pattern the virility 
which the other class may admire, but which is 
already eclipsed for them by the qualities be- 
fore mentioned. Both of these classes should 
be in the closest possible touch with their mod- 
els. Another and a paramount consideration 
is that there are important lessons which a 
man can teach to boys and a woman to girls 
which cannot otherwise be taught. 

The teacher of the bible class, and espe- 
cially if it be the large bible class which is be- 
coming so common in our time, should be a 
man. This is because of the amount of hard 
physical work which is consequent upon look- 
ing after the interests of such classes, and be- 
cause young men, of whom such classes are 
57 



The Teaching Problem 

largely composed, can be better and more 

surely held by a man. In some schools special 

bible classes of young- ladies are a 

out the arge f ea ture, in which cases women are of 

Bible Class ' ... „ , . ^ 

course the natural leaders, although I 

have known instances in which men have done 
this work exceedingly well. For the large, 
working, organized bible class a business man 
of broad experience, if he have the other qual- 
ifications, is the best teacher. 

As before suggested, in assigning his teach- 
ers the superintendent should indulge in no 
guess-work. The matter can only be thor- 
oughly regulated by observation, and study. 
The teachers' meeting, where the peculiarities 

of teachers should be closely observ- 
Annual Adjust- aW should throw much light on the 
ments ' __ „. & 

problem. Here will crop out many a 

suggestion as to those little transpositions 
which sometimes work wonders. The natural 
and easy time for most of these changes is at 
the annual reorganization, when the entire 
school is to be rehabilitated as to its teaching 
and management. Taking advantage of this 
time, and the opportunities it affords, a few 
years at most will give the superintendent that 
very unusual institution, a symmetrical Sun- 
day school. 

58 




CHAPTER IX. 

SOMK UNDESIRABLE TYPES OF 
TEACHERS. 



»HERE are types of teach- 
ers whom it is desirable to 
eliminate from the number of 
those actively in charge of 
classes, although they may be ideal in 
some of the points brought out in the preceding 
chapters, and altogether superior to other 
classes of objectionable teachers. These teach- 
ers possess in a high degree some of 
the very qualifications for which the ^ * t c _l llent People ' 
superintendent is in search. They are 
eminently pious, they are faithful in every 
sense of the word, they are frequently close 
Bible students, and they are unremitting in 
their desire to be useful. There are drawbacks 
connected with their work, however, which are 
a constant reminder that the direction of their 
activity is not well chosen. 

Prominent among these is the over-zealous 
teacher. There is a sense in which one cannot 
possess too much zeal, but there is 
just as certainly a zeal without knowl- 
edge. Here is a teacher who, with a 
heart burning to save souls, is so constantly and 
unremittingly crowding the subject of personal 
59 



The Over-Zealous 
Teacher 



The Teaching Problem 



salvation upon the attention of a class of grow- 
ing- boys as to drive them one by one out of the 
class if not out of the school. The gentle tact 
by which a teacher in an adjoining- class brings 
her boys one by one to Christ, and gradually 
enlarges the circle gathered about her, is ut- 
terly lacking in this noble Christian man or 
woman. 

Then we have the hobby-riding teacher. 
This is usually a man, as full of theories as of 
zeal, who takes it for 
granted that his class 
knows little or nothing 
of the subject in hand — , 
and the subject being/ 
his own theory in this 
he is right. He devotes his ener- 
gies to enlarging upon his own 
particular interpretation of the 
Word, in which interpretation . 
he has implicit faith. No other 
view except his own is worthy of the slightest 
consideration. He asks few questions, and so 
frames most of these that he must 

The Teacher with answer them himself. He has one 

a Hobby 

favorite topic, and all lessons and all 

roads lead directly to it. His class, which he 

perhaps prefers shall be made up of adults, 

listen respectfully, but yawn, become irregular, 

and all except those who feel bound by duty or 

personal considerations finally stay away. 

Such a teacher has never built up a substantial 

Sunday school class since the days of Robert 

Raikes. 

60 




Two Out of Place 

I fully appreciate the value of the ' 'quar- 
terly " in the work of the Sunday school class. 
It should be kept in its place, however, which is 
serving as a help in lesson study, and not as 
the reliance of the teacher and the class in the 
recitation hour. Did you ever sit in the class 
with the teacher whose reverence for the Bible 
was so great that the " quarterly " was wholly 
substituted for it in the work of the class room ? 
If so, reader, you will understand just how 
thousands of young- people are being- fed, or 
rather starved, on the dryest and most 
innutritious of husks. The rich Word Te * chin g by the 

Quarterly 
itself, which in the hands of the good 

teacher is the power of God unto salvation, is 
an influence of hardly appreciable potency in 
this class. Of everything- said and of every 
thought advanced investigation is made to see 
whether it is so nominated in the "quarterly," 
and if not the lesson is at once brought back 
into the straight-jacket from which it has for 
the moment escaped. What can be expected of 
a class so taught ? 

In this category must also be enumerated 
the teacher who, while a kind of student of the 
Word, is utterly oblivious of the details of a 
lesson. The lesson setting is to him a sealed 
book — I have said to ''him" for a 
special reason, because this teacher The " Oblivious " 
. « -, . Teacher 

is usually a man, and often a promi- 
nent member of the church. Perfectly ex- 
emplary, highly respected, liked by his class, 
and to an extent useful as a religious teacher, 
his ignorance of many of the simplest things 
61 



The Teaching Problem 

necessary to a thorough understanding of the 
lesson is so conspicuous as to keep his class al- 
ways small, and hold it much of the time on 
the verge of dissolution. A class thus half- 
taught never retains bright new pupils of any 
age whatever. 

There is also the teacher, as there is the su- 
perintendent, who has outlived usefulness. 
This teacher perhaps began well, and seemed 
to be resourceful and effective for a time, but 
gave out. There was a desire to be useful, and 
it led to a brief special effort ; but the supply 
of available teaching material was soon ex- 
hausted. Or the work may have been begun 
in the wrong way, or with too high a pitch of 
enthusiasm to hold out. Or it may be 
The Superannu- that with sufficient natural ability 
ated Teacher „ -.„ „„ - .- -».„ A , 

and a fair knowledge of the Bible to 

begin with, the teacher has simply settled down 
into a dull listlessness which is certain to com- 
municate itself to and almost ruin a class. A 
teacher may be superannuated at thirty as well 
as at eighty. Indeed many a sweet old Chris- 
tian is a power in the class at fourscore, while 
it is no rare thing to find an individual " taught 
out" in early manhood or womanhood. This 
is the only kind of too-old teacher to be found. 
There is, however, such a thing as a teacher 
being too young. Very young people may 
seem to be most successful teachers, but the 
management should be chary about giving 
them classes. To allow them to teach is an in- 
justice to both class and teacher. A boy or 
girl possessing the incipient qualifications for 
62 



A Brief Summary 

an ideal teacher may be practically ruined for 

that work by being-, hothouse-plant-like, pushed 

too rapidly. The teacher must not 

only hold the affection of the class, l he * mmature 

• ■- ,« I Teacher 

but must have its respect as well, and 

in order to do so must have acquired mature 
habits of thought and action. The superin- 
tendent should have no difficulty in restraining 
young- people until old enough to teach. 

Teacher pictures of this type might be mul- 
tiplied indefinitely, but I aim to include in this 
category only such forms of inefficiency as 
under most circumstances are regarded as 
practically incurable. The over-zealous teach- 
er is most difficult to restrain. The 
hobby-rider is never amenable to rea- Some Incurable 

Cases 

son. The " quarterly " teacher is an 
almost hopeless case. The hit-or-miss teacher 
can rarely be keyed up to the point of adequate 
lesson study. The superannuated teacher can 
hardly be rejuvenated. The hopeful case in 
the list enumerated is the too-young teacher, 
provided he can be held back until ripe. Teach- 
ers having these peculiarities in pronounced 
form should not be regarded as usable if better 
types can be secured. A number of objection- 
able class habits of teachers, and weaknesses 
in teaching, which should yield to treatment if 
proper remedial agencies are applied, will be 
referred to in a later chapter. 
63 



CHAPTER X. 




Looking Facts in 
the Face 



RENOVATING A CORPS OF 
TEACHERS. 

HB preceding- chapters have nec- 
essarily brought to view many 
things in connection with Sunday 
school teaching which are unpleas- 
ant to contemplate. They have not 
been written, though, in a spirit of 
fault-finding. I have not meant to 
speak caustically of any class of my 
fellow- workers, and do not wish to be 
thought pessimistic regarding the prac- 
ticability of satisfactory Sunday school organ- 
ization. Indeed I could not be pessimistic 
when I remember the host of splendid 
teachers to whom and to whose work 
none of these criticisms would apply, 
and that the personnel of this host is beyond 
compare. Only a frank treatment of a some- 
what neglected phase of the subject of teach- 
ing has been intended. There are pronounced 
difficulties, not to say evils, connected with the 
teaching problem which need attention every- 
where, and which cannot be treated from a re- 
medial standpoint without laying them open to 
the fullest scrutiny. 

64 




The School Has Rights 

We have learned in this discussion that 
these difficulties are interfering beyond all or- 
dinary estimate with the work of the Sunday 
school; and those who have read be- 

11 a ~ A Disagreeable 

tween the lines have clearly under- Dilemr ^ a 
stood that even reasonable success in 
that work is contingent upon our ability to 
lessen or remove them. A most unfortunate 
aspect of it all is that any attempt at correction 
involves in many instances a choice between 
the individual and the Sunday school. The 
management must get rid of a part of those 
who are all too willing to assist, or accept the 
alternative of placing or leaving classes in the 
hands of men and women who ought not to be 
trusted with so grave a responsibility. 

Either horn of the dilemma is embarrass- 
ing. As a matter of right there should be no 
hesitation in choosing between the inter- 
ests of the school on the one hand and the 
feelings of an individual on the other ; but 
in practice personal feelings are apt to 

carry the day, to the very serious 

J Z ' . tvt Yielding to Senti- 

detriment of the service. No one ment 

will dispute the statement that this 
yielding to sentiment has crippled or ruined 
many a Sunday school, yet there is a prevalent 
and most pronounced hesitation to apply ade- 
quate remedial measures. 

A management can hardly be faithful to its 
sacred trust without keeping in mind that the 
school has rights which must be respected. 
There are individuals, as we have seen, who 
are always seeking to contravene these rights, 
3 65 



The Teaching Problem 

and who arrogate to themselves the preroga- 
tives belonging only to the properly constituted 
authorities of the school. This is incipient an- 
archy, and is intolerable. What is the remedy ? 
If it were a case of downright and obvious 
immorality, or even doubtful morality, on the 
part of the teacher, summary removal from of- 
fice would usually be regarded as the proper 
step. A radical departure from orthodoxy 
would in many places be treated in the same 
way. Even when thus forced upon 
Summary Action ^e management summary action is 
Unwise 

greatly to be deplored. But the cases 

we are considering are not of this character. 
The objectionable teachers are respectable 
Christian people, against whose personality 
the finger of suspicion has never been pointed. 
These facts clearly point to the unwisdom of 
summary action. 

L,et it be remembered, however, that the 
presence of these people in the teaching force 
of the Sunday school, while much less harmful 
to the organization than is that of those other 
teachers who may be so promptly set aside, is 
nevertheless demoralizing in a pro- 
Wholesale De- nounce d degree. It means the substi- 
tution of discord and chaos for har- 
mony and order ; the prevalence of indifference 
and unresponsiveness ; a constant struggle with 
insubordination and antagonism ; the perpetu- 
ation of the process of class disintegration. It 
means that proselyting and class wrecking are 
to be perennial pastimes. It means that the su- 
perintendent may as well have no well consid- 
66 



By Gradual Steps 

ered plans, and the school no high ideals. It 
means everything- subversive of the good of all 
concerned. What is to be done ? 

First, let the superintendent test the effi- 
cacy of private personal appeal. This of 
course must be judiciously and tactfully under- 
taken, and is the only way in which 
the more pronounced of the harmful Trying Personal 

x . . Appeal 

practices and shortcomings in duty 

can be directly discussed with the recalcitrant 
teachers themselves. In many instances earn- 
est interviews of this character, conducted in 
the proper spirit, will be productive of good. 
In the treatment of tardiness appeal may with 
propriety be made in the teachers' meeting or 
in the open school, and if a strong case is pre- 
sented, and the subject is not made the pretext 
for frequent and tiresome harangue, the situa- 
tion may be improved. The possibilities of 
this course of action should be exhausted be- 
fore any remedy of a more radical character 
is applied. 

The next proceeding on the part of the su- 
perintendent, whose personal appeals have 
shown him just how far such appeals may be 
depended upon for results, is necessarily more 
positive. He may quietly watch his opportu- 
nity, make tactful substitutions where 
possible from time to time, and pro- Makin e Substi- 
ceed with the work of elimination, 
with current circumstances and conditions al- 
ways in view. He perhaps cannot get these 
teachers all out during a single term of office. 
He cannot suggest that they be given responsi- 
67 



The Teaching Problem 

ble positions as officers, for this would only be 
to enlarge the possibilities of detrimental re- 
sults from their work. They can sometimes be 
guided, though, into the corps of substitute 
teachers, where, with new classes from Sunday 
to Sunday, they may interfere much less seri- 
ously with the progress of the school. Kven 
this work should not be assigned them, though, 
where avoidable. 

The real opportunity for applying remedial 
measures is found in the beginning of the su- 
perintendent's term of office. The opportunity 
is all the greater if he is a new officer, but is 
sufficient if it is simply a case of re- 

etting p election. He is now in position to 

Standards x 

erect standards and make stipulations. 

Now is the proper time to wholly avoid private 
appeals and interviews, and place his plans and 
purposes before the school as a body, and not 
before the old teachers alone. He will thus be 
able to give his efforts an impersonal character 
which under the circumstances is of special im- 
portance. L<et him state clearly and positively 
just what is wanted. The school had no of- 
ficers at the end of the year until new ones 
were elected. It now has no teachers until 
new ones are appointed. The field was can- 
vassed with care in the selection of officers. 
He now proposes to exercise equal care in the 
assignment of teachers. He may and perhaps 
will make some mistakes, but he has only the 
highest good of the school in mind, and must 
use his judgment in the discharge of his try- 
ing responsibility. 

68 



The Leaders Appeal 

He should follow this explanation with the 
statement that he has certain stipulations to 
make to which his appointees must subscribe, 
else they will not be regarded as eligible. He 
expects his teachers to be regular, 
punctual, participant, supporters of condittol? 1 ^^ 
school authority, harmonious, mu- 
tually helpful to each other, and in every way 
exemplary and faithful. He expects them to 
refrain from proselyting-, to attend teachers' 
meeting-, etc. These thing's, stated in this ab- 
stract way, will usually be accepted as reason- 
able. " Now," he may say in conclusion, " the 
acceptance of office will be regarded as a pledge 
of compliance with these conditions. I may 
not be able to fill all the positions at once on 
this plan, but I will leave the vacancies open 
for substitute work until the proper quota of 
devoted people can be found. I rely upon those 
who have loaded me with this unpleasant re- 
sponsibility to help me in establishing our 
work on this high plane.' ' 

A few well chosen words of this character 
will appeal strongly to the best element in the 
school, and will secure such support from this 
element as is hardly possible under other con- 
ditions. If at this point, before the list of ap- 
pointments is known, the superintend- 
ent is accorded a vote of confidence Forestallin e the 

■t . . , . Kicker 

and acquiescence in the result, his 
case is made still stronger. His work up to 
this point has all been strictly impersonal, and 
no possible ground of offense has been given. 
A large proportion of the " kicking" so often 
69 



The Teaching Problem 

consequent upon any forward movement has 
been forestalled. Tact, courtesy, firmness and 
faithfulness will secure the rest. 

I do not mean that any such revolution will 

be followed by absolute absence of friction and 

antagonism, even if acquiescence has been 

pledged. Some of the more objectionable of 

the objectionable teachers will be dissatisfied 

and may be disposed to make trouble ; but they 

were constant sources of trouble any- 

Obstruction and eyen - f th wit hdraw en- 

Minimized . . _ " . 

tirely from the school their absence 

under the circumstances is better than their 
presence. Those who may be helpfully present 
are ardently desired. Those who are obstruct- 
ively present are advantageously spared, pro- 
vided their obstructiveness cannot be elimi- 
nated. 

The management which starts out with the 
idea of thus renovating its corps of teachers 
will meet with embarrassments. There will 
sometimes be difficulty in getting enough 
teachers. It is better, though, to have un- 
duly large classes, as far as the grading of the 
school will permit, with good teachers, 

rfT(lal:her8 arCity than t0 haVC claSSeS ° f P ro P er size 
with improper leadership. Teachers 

who are only fairly capable may in many in- 
stances have to be added to the list ; but if they 
are acceptable in the points so far considered, 
there is good reason to believe that they will 
become proficient in those discussed in succeed- 
ing chapters. In other words, the teacher who 
is wholly in touch and sympathy with the 
70 



Taking Higher Ground 

school, even if of limited attainment, is much 
more satisfactory, and gives much brighter 
promise of effective work, than the teacher 
who, though eminent in scholarly and peda- 
gogic qualifications, is selfish, discordant and 
unresponsive. 

The higher ground once taken, the manage- 
ment must kindly and firmly maintain the new 
position. There can be no question about the 
need of the change, and its righteous- 
ness is equally certain. The greatest The Greatest 

^ j. *«. , . ,, General Good 

good to the greatest number is the 

only principle to be considered in the conse- 
quent readjustments. If the courage which 
thus follows conviction is unflinching, and is 
accompanied by a consecration which is every- 
where recognized, and a tact which minimizes 
difficulties, the result is assured. A better day 
in all of these things is coming, and the school 
management which refuses to look toward the 
rising sun is unworthy of its trust. 
71 




CHAPTER XI. 



THE TEACHER AS THE PUPIl/S 
FRIEND AND HELPER. 



'HE opportunities of the 
teacher have been greatly 
multiplied when he has 
come to be recognized as the 
pupil's friend. Up to this point the relation- 
ship between the two has been formal and in a 
sense perfunctory. The teacher has all along* 

been trying- to g-et closer and closer, 
Getting Close to b t th - has held h{m t arm , s 

the Pupil . m X «. - , , . . 

length. One fine day, though, it dawns 
upon the pupil that the teacher is not merely 
his pedagogue, but is very much more. From 
this time the barriers are broken down, and 
the way is open for an entry into the pupil's 
life. This is the teacher's first great victory. 
It is worth a great deal to secure such van- 
tage ground. It is something- for which the 
teacher cannot obviously " campaign," nor can 
it be made the achievement of a day or of any 
fixed time. It can only follow honest and un- 
assumed interest in the pupil, and 

The Basis of special tact in the manifestation of 

Friendship . . . 

that interest. Originating in a gen- 
eral solicitude for the welfare of the class, it 
must be a growth, and must ripen in individual 
72 



Big Little Things 

cases as each learns more of the other. When 
thoroughly established it is among- the strong- 
est of ties outside of the family circle. The 
true teacher friend is one of the most trusted 
friends the world has ever known, and is the 
more trusted according as his friendship is the 
more unobtrusive, disinterested and unfailing, 
A natural manifestation of this friendship 
on the part of the teacher is in being quietly 
helpful. Numberless ways of doing this will 
suggest themselves which cannot be mentioned 
here. Among some of the most obvious in con- 
nection with the schoolroom is mak- 
ing the new pupil feel " at home," by * ractical Hel P- 
. , . « , .„ fulness 

introducing him to the other pupils, to 

the pastor, superintendent and others, not in a 
wholesale or embarrassing way, but as oppor- 
tunity offers ; by putting him in touch with the 
library, consulting his tastes (incidentally ele- 
vating them where practicable) and assisting 
in finding the books which will most attract 
him ; by selecting from the church announce- 
ments such things as may interest him, and 
casually calling his attention to them ; by giv- 
ing him personally (and always apparently in- 
cidentally) a little suggestion about the next 
lesson which may turn his thoughts toward 
it; — in short, by investing every little avail- 
able school circumstance or incident with some 
sort of value and personal significance in his 
eyes. If it is plain that all of this is done with 
studied purpose the good effect will be lost. 

The ways in which helpfulness may be exer- 
cised outside of the school are legion. This is 
73 



The Teaching Problem 

where it is least expected, too, and where it will 

be most appreciated. Suppose the pupil to be 

a boy. It is a good thing to "happen" onto 

him through the week, preferably on 

Entering the the street or roa dway, or where he 

Boy's Circle 

may be at work, rather than at his 

home, where at the beginning of the acquaint- 
ance a meeting may be embarrassing. If you 
meet him casually when not busy, manage to 
secure a little conversation with him on some 
little pretext, not saying a word about Sunday 
school or the lesson, but let it be seen that it is 
a pleasure to you to meet him on other ac- 
counts. If he is busily employed do not seri- 
ously interrupt him, but if you can discover 
some phase of his work which he does particu- 
larly well tell him you want him to show you 
some time just how that is done. When you 
leave him you will leave with him a little rest- 
less looking forward to the time when he can 
make the explanation for which you have 
asked. In all this the Sunday school has per- 
haps not been mentioned, or if at all only in an 
incidental or casual way. 

Some other time lead him to talk of his 

amusements, show a special interest in them, 

and if practicable tell him that you would like 

to "try" him some day in something in which 

it crops out that he is somewhat 

H^Life* 101 * ° f skilled * If y° n have a new 3" ame in 
mind tell him you would like to show 

it to him — and the possible result will be a 
chance to invite him to your home or an invita- 
tion to his home, the receiving of which is a 
74 



Calling on the Boy 

great point gained. Going- to his home as an 
invited friend, and going in the making- of a 
formal teacher's call, are two entirely different 
thing-s. A visit under the latter auspices is al- 
most certain to find the g-uest "out" if the 
coming - is known, or uncomfortable if it is a 
surprise. The visit paid under the other con- 
ditions will insure a host proud to entertain, 
and a life thrown wide open, to further tactful 
advances on. the part of the teacher. This 
point gained, the opportunity is multiplied of 
gradually substituting the clean for the doubt- 
ful in. the boy's amusements, for elevating his 
ideals, and best of all for so winning his con- 
fidence as to prepare the way for the higher ul- 
timate achievement which the teacher always 
has in mind. 

I have used the approach to close friendship 
with the boy simply as an illustration. The 
teacher of girls or the teacher of adults will 
readily see the necessary differences in ways of 
reaching the desired end. No one can 

tell anyone else just how all these A P1 * ce for Com " 

. . " mon Sense 

things are done. Circumstances, en- 
vironment, personality, etc., are factors which 
greatly complicate the problem, but conse- 
crated common sense is usually equal to its so- 
lution when backed by the kind of purpose 
which makes Sunday school effort effective. 

There is another kind of help which the 
teacher may often render, to which I wish to 
call special attention, and which may reach all 
ages and nearly all conditions of pupils. To 
almost every one the matter of regular and 
75 



The Teaching Problem 



satisfactory employment is a serious considera- 
tion. Any agency which assists in improving 
conditions of this kind, in substitut- 
Finding Em- . something . better for the unsatis- 

ployment & . & 

factory, or in finding places for the 

idle, may be highly useful. The teacher who 
has unobtrusively learned the needs of his pu- 
pils, and has their welfare on his mind and 
heart, will now and then find an opportunity 
of rendering most substantial help. The good 
thus accomplished is a doorway to much greater 
possible good. 

In social life the teacher may be very help- 
ful to his class. This is especially true when 
the pupils are made to feel that the teacher's 
home is only one re- 
move from being a 
home of their own. 
In making this home 
a factor in class work 
tact must be employed, 
as in everything else 
affecting the Sunday 
school. It is not an 



easy matter to induce v 
timid boys and girls, and 




At the Teacher's 
Fireside 



timid men and 
women, whose homes are often of a different 
type and are much less attractive, and who 
often have no homes at all, to freely 
visit the fireside of the teacher. It is 
a great point gained, however, when 
the teacher's personality has so set everybody 
at ease that differences in station and condition 
are forgotten, and his home, whether elegant 
76 



The Evening Together 

or humble, is a Mecca to which the members of 
his class are glad to come. Whether for an 
evening's consultation, or an evening of amuse- 
ments, or an annual dinner (which is a valuable 
adjunct to class work) — the resultant good of a 
class gathering in this place is sure to be felt. 
Who can measure the power of the social hour 
in the home of the teacher ? The influence of 
this hour, enjoyed away back in childhood and 
youth, is manifested in the correct lives of men 
and women in stations of usefulness every- 
where. 

The all-around teacher knows the pupil 
everywhere, greets the pupil everywhere, and 
is ready to help the pupil everywhere. As the 
acquaintance between the two ripens the pupil 
learns where to find his best friend, and in turn 
takes pride in making the friendship mutually 
agreeable and helpful. And when in every 
phase of their work the one thus helps the 
other the condition is almost ideal. 
77 



CHAPTER XII. 




CLASS LOCATION AND EQUIPMENT. 

THE modern idea of the quarters in 
which a Sunday school should be 
>£\ located is a main central room 
^ t ?^f*~% into which class rooms 
'J£ '••sJ r* may D ^ opened during 
■ — -^"^^ ^^^^ S^^^^^ ^l^, the general exercises of 
~ ^g^^ J=^s > -' ^* t ** tow * ne school, these rooms 
•~*^ -^W ^v ^ being closed during the reci- 

tation hour. This style of 
building has been evolved from long experi- 
ence and from a careful study of the subject. 
Unfortunately a great majority of our schools 
cannot aspire to any such ideal con- 

p-to- ate veniences. It is not the province of 

Architecture r 

this book, either, to discuss Sunday 

school architecture, the object being to present 

only such considerations as are applicable to 

and usable in any Sunday school anywhere. 

Convenience and comfort are primary con- 
siderations, however, and a few suggestions in 
this connection may be found generally help- 
ful in the handling of the class. The size of 
the class is an important factor just here, and 
let us first give this a little thought. 

The size of a class should be so regulated 
as to place it easily within the control of the 
78 



The Size of the Class 

teacher. It will be seen at once, then, that the 
matter of available size is contingent upon the 
ability of the teacher to control and the 
character of the pupils to be con- Control as Regu- 

rr+ . . . lating Size 

trolled. Tact in governing- is quite a 
point in the teacher's make-up, and when this 
is a marked characteristic a large class is alto- 
gether feasible. Of two women equally quali- 
fied in a general way as teachers one will easily 
be able to handle twice as many pupils as the 
other. Ordinarily girls may be assembled in 
larger classes than boys, as their propensity 
for disorder and mischief is not usually so 
fully developed as in the boys ; — I say usually, 
for I have known marked exceptions to 
this rule. Then there are noteworthy 
differences in boys, and in girls, as well 
as in their teachers. These things com- 
bine to make the fixing of an arbi- 
trary size for a class impracticable. 

The competent teacher, then, can- 
safely undertake to instruct as large 
a class of boys or girls as he can easily and 
smoothly control. I think no other limits need 
to be set, outside of those growing 

naturally out of the proper grading of The Matter of 
. - «~ « , Easy Control 

the school, w here a very good teacher 
is found, though, the class limits should be made 
as large as is consistent with the general plans 
of division into departments. The bible class, 
in which deportment is rarely an embarrass- 
ing question, may be of almost any size which 
the environment of the school may render pos- 
sible. 

79 




The Teaching Problem 

On general principles, taking- classes and 

teachers outside of the bible class division as 

we find them, perhaps a fair and practicable 

average of size would be six or eight pupils to 

a class — remembering that in almost 

Some Suggestive school circumstances may call for 

Figures ...... „ , . 

variation in either way from this sug- 
gestion. If enough good teachers are avail- 
able, though, smaller classes are often de- 
sirable. 

In the ordinary Sunday school it is always 

necessary that some of the classes be located 

centrally, or at least in the body of the room, 

away from the walls. This is as un- 

Centrally Located fortunate as it is unavoidable in many 

Classes 

places, as a teacher who handles a 

class well in such a situation, without annoy- 
ing other classes, and in turn being interrupted 
by them, finds the difficulties of the lesson hour 
multiplied. Classes should always be located 
as far from each other as possible, and espe- 
cially when in the body of the room. Curtains 
are sometimes used to secure isolation, but un- 
less the classes are placed in corners, 
Objections to angles and recesses, curtains can 

Curtains ° „ _. 

rarely be used to advantage. Even 
under the best conditions they are hardly satis- 
factory as a general school resource, though an 
occasional class may use them. In cold weather 
they shut off the heat, in hot weather they shut 
off the needed circulation of air, and at all 
times they interfere with the light. 

The cultivation of a moderate tone of voice, 
both in teaching and in recitation, is helpful 

80 




The Great Voice 

under these conditions. If the loud-voiced 

brother who is heard every Sunday high above 

the buzz of the classes could hear himself as 

others hear him he would certainly lose no time 

in cultivating- the vocal excellence of 

Shakespeare's Cordelia. If there is a l he Loud-Voiced 

r - , j- Brother 

corner for him where he can face an 

open window his class should be removed to 
that location forthwith. In any event he 
should not be so placed that he is necessarily 
talking- at and disturbing a hundred people, in- 
stead of splitting the ears of only his own pu- 
pils. I just now recall one of the finest teach- 
ers I ever knew, whose voice was of that keenly 
penetrating variety that when at work he was 
virtually teaching the entire Sunday school, 
and it was only by the most fortuitous location 
of his class that the annoyance could be over- 
come in any degree. 

The orator-teacher, who usually has a 
bible class, should be quartered with 
view to minimizing the reach of his ( 
forensic eloquence. A quiet sug- 
gestion by the superintendent to this 
teacher and the other one just men- 
tioned may be helpful — but these vocal diffi- 
culties are often constitutional, and cannot 
be overcome, especially as in the 
earnestness of teaching the ad- ™* f™ yer Before 
monition is pretty sure to be for- 
gotten. These are often splendid and useful 
teachers, too, and cannot be spared from the 
service. I once as superintendent had a fine 
lawyer teacher, whose class held him in high 
81 




The Teaching Problem 



Forming the Arc 
of a Circle 



esteem, and whose earnestness sometimes ren- 
dered him utterly oblivious of everything but 
his class. One Sunday a lady teacher located 
near by came to me laughingly with the ques- 
tion, " What am I to do while our lawyer is ad- 
dressing the jury ? " The annoyance inadvert- 
ently caused by the loud-voiced teacher is much 
lessened by having him talk against a corner 
of the room. 

A small class is better seated on chairs 
placed in the form of the arc of a circle, where 
such location is feasible. The straight row of 
seats, or bench, is objectionable, though often 
necessary. A half dozen or ten pupils are 
more easily accessible and more easily inter- 
ested where the arc is practicable, as 
may be proved by experiment. Besides 
the other reasons making this form of 
seating desirable, it obviates the necessity of 
loud speaking. In large classes this idea can- 
«■... > not as a rule be carried into effect. 
^ — = ? A class — and especially a class of 

boys — should never be seated with a 
clear view of and directly facing the 
entrance to the Sunday schoolroom. 
It is doubtful whether that normal 
boy ever lived whose attention is not 
always awaiting a challenge to be 
drawn away from the matter to 
which the teacher is directing it. 
To many a boy that door is a pos- 
itive temptation, too — particularly 
on a bright day — outside of the variety of en- 
tertainment which the things going on around 
82 




About Class Positions 



the door incidentally afford. If the boys must 
be placed near the entrance their backs should 
be toward it. 

For similar reasons when a class is located 
in a corner the pupils 
should face the corner, 
the only special object in 
plain view then being the 
teacher, whose place is in 
the corner, facing- the pu- 
pils. On the other hand, 
to seat the class in the 
corner, facing the room, 
to which the teacher's 
back is turned, is to at 
least divide attention be- 
tween the teacher and the 
occurrences in the room 
beyond, with the probability of the 
teacher receiving a very small share. 
The illustrations show classes prop- 
erly and improperly seated, and make the point 
clear. When a class is lo- 
cated near a wall the same 
idea should be kept in mind. 
Where a teacher has a rasp- 
ing and penetrating voice 
it may sometimes be neces- 
sary to arrange differently, 
though such instances 
should be rare. 

That class is most fortunate whose environ- 
ment will permit the special use of blackboard, 
maps, etc., in such a way as not to interrupt the 
83 




The Class in the 
Corner 




The Teaching Problem 

■^ school. This is not usually practi- 
cable, but the procuring-, ownership 
and use of such equipment is a 
class stimulus of great value. 
Other items of equipment may 
be used to advantage from 
time to time, as the thoughtful 
teacher will discover, always 
provided the class is so located as to admit of 
their proper care and use. In many English 
Sunday schools one seat in every class is made 
with a lid covering a box enclosure in which 
the books used by the class may be stored. 
84 





CHAPTER XIII. 

SOME MEASUREMENTS OF THE TEACHER. 

■■■HE preceding- chapters have been de- 
i i voted to a discussion in detail of the 
general and special relations of the 
teacher to the Sunday school, and his personal 
attitude toward its work. Attention has been 
given to his field duties, and especially to the 
spirit in which they should be discharged. The 
succeeding chapters will treat more particularly 
of the teacher in the class room, and in prepara- 
tion for the class room, touching now 

and then only slightly and inciden- Bre * dth Means 

/"-,-«. , Usefulness 

tally upon other features of his work 

not already classified. I am sure that the 
teacher who falls in heartily with the spirit of 
these pages up to this point may be depended 
upon for conscientious, careful and prayerful 
effort in all else affecting the school. As stated 
in the beginning, I regard the considerations 
already enumerated as paramount, and cannot 
do otherwise than look with misgivings upon 
the teacher who, oblivious of these things 
already discussed, attempts to live the teacher's 
life almost wholly within the half hour of reci- 
tation ; who knows no school relationships out- 
side of this fraction of the weekly Sunday 
school period ; and whose presence means noth- 
85 



The Teaching Problem 

ing in connection with the discharge of the 
general functions of the school. The broadly 
useful teacher is impossible of development in 
such cramped environment. 

Before looking into the other side of the 
teacher's life and work a few words of intro- 
duction are in place. 

The church has no more responsible position 
for lay members than that which is held by the 

teacher in the Sunday school. Almost 
The Character any other church official or functionary 

has a divided duty, and generalizes to 
quite an extent in its discharge, with a conse- 
quent division of responsibility, while the mis- 
sion of the teacher is special and direct. Much 
of the work done from the pulpit is of necessity 
at long range ; the teacher's labor is hand-to- 
hand. The teacher finds a way into the hearts 
and lives of the young as no one else can, and, 
surrounded by plastic material, is beyond all 
others the character former of the church. 

The teacher should therefore be not only the 
very best type of Christian, but the most com- 
plete and well furnished man or woman. The 
ideal teacher is never only fairly good in any- 
thing. The position calls for excellence. In 
tact, in energy, in industry, in promptness, in 

unselfishness, in consecration the 
Photl^hed teacher should excel. The office and 

its incumbent must command respect, 
the personality must awaken love. The teacher 
who can secure neither the respect nor the 
affection of the pupil is at once handicapped 
for usefulness. The ideal is not met with every 
36 



Seeking Good Teachers 

day or in every school, and the superior quali- 
ties of the teacher in active service as usually 
found are only relative ; but these qualities, in 
embryo or in process of development, should 
always be present. 

There is often decided difficulty in inducing- 
those to teach whom the superintendent is con- 
vinced are best fitted for teaching-. It 
is frequently the case that the best Merit Marked b * 

Modesty 
teachers are the most distrustful of 

their own w r ork, and are the most reluctant to 
assume the responsibility of teaching-. The 
best teacher is usually the most modest one, 
and the one most willing- to relinquish the work 
upon the slig-htest sug-g-estion. How sensitive 
upon the point of usefulness and personal quali- 
fication this teacher is no one will ever know 
who has not had in hand the task of organizing- 
and maintaining- a corps of efficient teachers. 
This man or woman — more frequently woman 
— is many times secured only by persuasion and 
arg-ument, but when secured is of inestimable 
value to the school. She is studious, self-dis- 
trustful, humble, and is as much superior to the 
self-satisfied teacher as one kind of worker can 
well be to another. 

Not only is it often hard to induce desirable 
people to take charge of classes, but it is some- 
times impossible to find enoug-h such 
people Of experience to equip the Scarcity of Choice 

u 1 •■* v. • • t.x Material 

school, even if every such one in sig-ht 

could be pressed into the service. The numeri- 
cal size of the church membership upon which 
the superintendent may draw will perhaps have 
87 



The Teaching Problem 

something to do with this paucity of teaching- 
material ; but the proportion of good teachers 
in a large congregation may be no greater than 
in a small one, or may be even less. He is 
therefore many times at his wits' end as to 
completing the corps which he has started out 
to form. It is safe to say that between the 
over-readiness of undesirable volunteers, and 
the hesitation or absolute unwillingness of 
others, it is a rare case indeed in which the 
superintendent is satisfied that the classes are 
as well cared for as they would be could all the 
material at hand be made available and be 
suitably assorted. 

The dilemma in which the superintendent is 
placed is a puzzling one indeed. Here are a few 
teachers whose installation in office he knows 
will be prejudicial to the entire work for which 
he is held responsible. Here are some untried 
and untrained but altogether worthy people who 
with many misgivings will consent to occupy 
the vacant posts. What shall he do under 
these circumstances ? Without any hesitation 
he should appoint the raw recruits. 
Using the Raw The situation carl hardly be made 

Recruits . . 

worse by their selection, and the re- 
luctance with which they undertake the work 
indicates that they will be teachable and amen- 
able to suggestion. High hopes may be justly 
entertained of even very ordinary teaching 
material when it is not opinionated, unsympa- 
thetic and beyond the reach of official advice 
and direction. 

The careful superintendent will find after 
86 



Forward Steps 

a few years of painstaking- work that the 
classes in his charge may nearly all be in good 
hands. Persistence in efforts to remedy the 
defects and evils which crop out in 
connection with teaching is to a great ^° H ^!! ng in 

. ?t School Progress 

extent rewarded with success. .Even 
if difficulties yield only stubbornly to treat- 
ment, his duty of adhering unflinchingly to his 
purpose is none the less apparent. There is no 
point in this work of improvement where he 
can safely stop. 

In the meantime the ideal teacher who is in 
his mind appears before him from time to time 
in the school, and his instrumentality in the 
discovery and development of this class of 
teachers is his great reward. He may 

have and often does have a number „ e Sch ° o1 

Becomes a Power 
of teachers who approximate to his 

model, and as their number increases, as it may 
and should increase, the school begins to be 
felt as a new power in the community. It is a 
poor superintendent indeed who, as he sees his 
dream of a well organized corps of earnest, 
efficient, responsive and willing teachers real- 
ized, will not redouble his efforts to assist in 
making their work effective. 

The best type of teacher is regular in at- 
tendance, is rarely ever late, and understands 
that an irregular or habitually late 
teacher cannot do the best work. This Things Known of 

the Best Teacher 
teacher though often a man is oftener 

a woman, for the reason that a much larger 

percentage of women than men can be relied 

on for faithfulness to Sunday school duties. 

89 



The Teaching Problem 

This teacher's lesson is invariably well pre- 
pared, with perhaps all available helps, but 
mainly from the Word itself. The method of 
teaching is by the questioning process. The 
pupils are drawn out of themselves, just as 
their uncertain knowledge of the lesson is 
drawn out and made positive. Without realiz- 
ing just how it has been done, their moiety of 
information has been enriched at every step, 
until as the short lesson hour closes each week 
both class and teacher are enjoying a sense of 
time well spent. 

Every Sunday school should have a corps of 
substitute teachers. Absolute faithfulness and 
devotion cannot always secure the presence of 
every teacher, and provision for neces- 
The Substitute sary absence should be made. A few 
Teacher members of the school, as well quali- 

fied as may be, should be listed as substitute 
teachers, the services of some of whom are 
likely to be in demand every Sunday in a large 
school. Where the normal class is feasible this 
emergency is provided for in a natural and 
easy way. 

Should the 'pastor of the church be a teacher 
in the Sunday school ? Perhaps not as a rule, 
but it is often very helpful if he have a bible 
class in charge, although this is a mat- 
The Pastor as a ter of local c i rcums t a nces. He is often 
eminently qualified to conduct a nor- 
mal class, and if he undertake this work in 
earnest will find it one of his greatest fields of 
usefulness. Whether a teacher or not, he 
should be in the Sunday school, his conspic- 
90 



That Better Day 

uous absence from which is an influence separ- 
ating- him from the youth of his church. 

If Sunday school development is to continue 
a day will come when standards will be set up 
by which the candidate for a place as 

teacher will be measured. Character, A Comin e Hi s her 

,. . . „ ' Standard 

religious experience, doctrinal beliefs 

and personal attainments may fig-ure in the 
problem of fitness, the first three points per- 
haps being- strictly adhered to and the last 
varying- with the position which the teacher is 
to occupy. It may be long- before examinations 
for this work become general, thoug-h the in- 
creasing" org-anization of normal classes, and 
the impetus which grading- is receiving- in so 
many places, are paving- the way for the 
chang-e. Certain it is that in this way or in 
some other way the quality of the instruction 
furnished in the Sunday school is to be im- 
proved. 

91 



CHAPTER XIV. 




PREPARATION FOR TEACHING. 

TITH a proper realization of 
the importance of his work, 
the teacher will under- 
stand that before teaching- 
is undertaken a necessary 
preliminary step is specific 
preparation. There are 
two thing's which a large 
section of the human race 
are ready to undertake to 
do without preparation — to teach a Sunday 
school class, or to run a newspaper. One will 
attempt on impulse to teach a class who would 
not essay even to set out 
a g-arden bed without 
asking how. 

It is only thoughtless- 
ness that leads anyone 
to assume that teaching- 
may be reasonably un- 
dertaken with anything- 
less than thorough prep- 
aration. A steamer is 
about to start across the 
Atlantic. The pilot 
comes aboard and re- 
92 




Thoroughly Furnished 

marks to the assembled passengers : " I know 

nothing" about the way, and have no chart or 

compass, but of course it will be all right." In 

the panic which ensues the decks will 

be cleared as rapidly as the gang- A Pair of Danger- 

, , ous Pilots 

planks will carry the people to the 
shore. And yet one of these same indignant 
ex-passengers will sit down the next Sunday 
morning before his class and say, "Boys, I 
don't know anything about this lesson," and 
will utterly fail to see the analogy in the situa- 
tion of the two pilots. 

When is the teacher ready for the half hour 
with the class? For the teacher in any other 
situation than in the Sunday school there could 
be but one answer — When thoroughly fur- 
nished for the work of that half hour ; and for 
our teacher, whose mission is more important 
than that of any other teacher, of 
course no other answer will do. " Do ** j* |^ y When 
I know?" is a question which faces 
the teacher at every turn, and cannot be ig- 
nored. There is no option for the teacher — he 
absolutely must inform himself, else he is not 
fitted to teach. 

It is not sufficient to have general knowl- 
edge of a subject. Teaching is teaching only 
when it is definite. To teach something defi- 
nite one must have learned something 
definite. There is no edge, or point, Definite Thin 8 s to 

« . . . , . Be Taught 

or bearing in the teaching which is 
not absolutely definite. To know just what is 
to be taught is essential. It is a mistake to 
suppose that the "happy inspiration" may 
93 



I >n- \\ -.u hmg Problem 

come to the possessor of n merely cursory 
knowledge of the Lesson In hand, The Lnspii i 
t ion i>( the teacher who makes this his depend- 
ence is .1 v« 1 3 uncertain quantity, and when 11 
flashes out upon the class Is Likely to be of un- 
certain aptness, and Ln every way La keeping 
with the uncertain character of the Informa- 
tion of which it La born. The genuine 
« a PP> ln " u happy Inspiration "usually comes aa 
tim crown o1 s well-mastered Lesson, 
and sends teacher and pupils «m their several 
ways with ■ tingle in their hearts rarely it ever 
known Ln the class of the unprepared teacher. 
To express it as mildly as possible, how unw 
it is to face a class with s nervous conscious 
ness that it" s Lesson veers Ln any way out of an 
indefinite general course the teacher's Igno 
ranee Ls sure to at once become conspicuous! 
"Unwise 91 is a very weak word Ln this conn 
tion, too, when we remember just what ill-di- 
gested instruction in the Sunday school class 
may mean, and the possible reach of error care- 
lessly thrown Ln the way of receptive minds. 

The field of study Ln connection with any 

Sunday school lesson Ls practically boundl< 

Hence the very natural Inquiry, What are the 

things iti any lesson of sufficient Importance 

to be studied ? it Ls not easy to place 

Muv - thi a Limit here, tor what Ls there which, 
Field of Study ... . . , . 

it important enough to be recorded, is 

not important enough to be studied ? Bounds 

to the preparation to be made may be set 

when the range of possibility as to what may 

come up in the teaching of the Lesson Ls ac- 



A Line of Danger 





< urate] y in r1. Who will •« I 1 tie <■ bOttfld • ? 

Tli«- program of wli.it one j . .1 i t .1 n;- mi^ to 
\rm h « .1 miol I)'- i 'I \r<] nil, i-il In i , ... ,i me, 

Oi 1 1). 1 1 whi' h i . tO t>€ ' '"1 led. 
.i < ondil ion of re 
spoil .i v -in- . . i:i t 1m- ( l.i . . i . t In- 
(i i » .inn Oi •' <'•" h' i P, .i nrl no 
i < ,]ion ; . « < I ret known 

to v.li ieh a lesson « on hi be m< 

out as was the broth to Oliver TwUti 

The pi ' pared general plan may he ad- 

-i to, hut h< i <• .i ad 1 1" ' •• -ill along I he hal I 
hour with ih«- class In which the teach* 

I if- hi pttpil i • Stire tO pUl : Or nil 

Wittli »nt side ol I In- Mm . mentally 

ked ""t by i be I tsu hei . ( >ne would not 
h i . pupils do ot herwl >e 1 1 he < ould f and 

mo ■' i >idd not h.i >,«• I hem do "i her- 

lie would. Away, then, gOC • this Limit 

to i" epa i .it Ion. 

'i tie I '■'' hi ' i •■ niiot 1 1 ... h .iii ' 

lesson <.f (.'.in .<• not ; bill if oa nnot b< i | 

to do le • 1 1 1 • 

Iftd v il all. TO 1 i'/ tO foid 
any ot her i ;i y, or I o ma ke ,i shorl (111,1 dan 

gerous* '1 lie i« acher must not be 

y ;ihn ; .s, but - 



• \n< ...... » 

'j 00 Clc 



Avoid Possible 
Cuts 



he « o cle.irl y in • .1 it of 1 !:e sit 11.it ion 

1 . to » ' nd«T all doubl fni ezped U ni 1 unn< 
...1 v. 1 1 will not do for 1 he tea* her to b< 
to 1 ' rely enough to teach the l< 

bol '"in of hi b< 

his ne< n estlge Is to be " ■' 1 nod 

and hi . use fill ms. . < < .n 1 i n ::<• n n i m p.i i I'd 



The Teaching Problem 





...F.l, 1 


1 ./g 


. — J 


ill 


V 


^ 




O 


\ N 1 







/ll^ 


i* - * \ 




o 



c>> 



><^ 



Let us remember in this connection that 
preparation is not loading-, and that loading- 
is not preparation. The druggist with a pre- 
. scription to fill does not be- 
g-in at one end of a shelf 
and empty every bottle un- 
til the receptacle has been 
filled ; nor does he take a lit- 
tle from each of a number 
of bottles at random. His 
work is selection and com- 
pounding* from first to last, 
and is performed with a 
consciousness that the grav- 
est consequences may fol- 
low even the slightest devi- 
ation from painstaking 
- care. The teacher should never bring to 
the pupil the result of prescription filling per- 
formed in darkness with scales missing and 
bottles mixed. And yet that is just what many 
an unreflecting teacher is doing. 

The importance of selecting, digesting, sift- 
ing and weighing cannot be over-estimated. 
Scripture is replete with suggestions as to " sea- 
son," and "due portion," and discrim- 
ination, and wisdom and tact in con- 
nection with the manner in which its 
lessons are to be meted out to the needy ; and 
it is only when so handled that there can be 
even an approximation to "rightly dividing 
the word of truth." 

96 



The Due Portion 
in Season 



CHAPTER XV. 




SOME THINGS TO BE STUDIED. 

[ HERB are of course certain 
things in particular which 
the teacher should seek to 
know as thoroughly as possi- 
ble in connection with every 
lesson. These things may 
be fancifully classified, but 
as lessons are of so many kinds, and no one clas- 
sification can be made everywhere applicable, 
I prefer to discuss them in a general way, leav- 
ing the teacher to select and arrange as the les- 
son in hand may demand, without multiplied 
suggestions which are likely to be as confusing 
as helpful. 

The geographical setting of a lesson is al- 
ways a matter of interest and frequently of 
special importance. Places are sometimes men- 
tioned in the text or in the context, and with 
the many maps and helps within easy reach it 
is not often difficult to ascertain many interest- 
ing facts in connection with them, both in the 
time of the lesson story and in our 
own day. Other lessons are of a 
character in which location is a mat- 
ter of less consequence, but which from other 
scripture is ascertainable. The teacher often 
4 97 



The Geographical 
Setting 



The Teaching Problem 

realizes that the possession of a few tangible, 
material facts of a geographical or historical 
character are essential to securing- and holding 
the attention of young people from the schools, 
who are daily coming up with similar things. 
The use for such facts may in any given lesson 
be great or slight, but the teacher must be in a 
position to be regarded as authority when upon 
occasion they find a natural place. 

When an incident occurred, at what time in 
the life of Christ he performed a certain mira- 
cle, the date of the appearance of a prophet 

whose messages are studied, or the 
Chronology and period in his life when he said or did 
Locality 

that which the lesson relates, the king 
reigning at the time, etc., are matters of fact 
with which the teacher should be acquainted as 
far as these various things are known, although 
they may sometimes seem to be of relatively 
small importance. Like everything else placed 
before the class, however, all statements of lo- 
cal fact emanating from the teacher should rest 
on knowledge, and as far as possible should be 
free from conjecture. 

The lesson setting as to social and reli- 
gious conditions, political environment, popu- 
lar tastes, customs and tendencies, dress and 

manners, climate and season, etc., 
Conditions, En- mugt as to a part Qr aU of these thing - s 

sometimes be set forth if the full force 
and meaning of a lesson is to be understood. 
Some of this information may come out of a 
study of the lesson itself, but much of it must 
be secured from a general study of Bible times 
98 




Items in Lesson Study 

and circumstances, which should be a basis of 
preparation to teach ; the teacher refreshing- his 
mind as occasion may suggest, so as to provide 
against the unfortunate possibility of the class 
finding him uninformed in a matter with which 
he could easily be conversant. 

A fascinating feature of Bible study is 
found in the lives of individuals. About the 
most of these in their personality, habits and 
circumstances but little is known, but that lit- 
tle should be thoroughly mastered by the 
teacher. The teacher who has lit- 
tle acquaintance with Bible biog- p^ t ^° graphical 
raphy labors under a disadvantage 
which can hardly be measured. Who a men- 
tioned character was, what he was, how he 
lived, where he lived, and what he did, are only 
a few of the things which the teacher if possi- 
ble should be able to discuss without hesitation. 
The text of a lesson, from first to last, and 
with a realization that no word is so unimpor- 
tant that it may be overlooked, should be 
studied in detail. The detached mean- 
ing of important words, as well as The Study of the 

... f . .- . .. Lesson Text 

their peculiar significance in the con- 
nection in which they are used, should be in- 
vestigated. The assembling of the words into 
sentences, the grouping of sentences, the man- 
ner of statement of circumstance or truth, and 
the qualifications of these statements, are all 
matters for study. 

A lesson niay and nearly every lesson does 
teach many things, but there is always a cen- 
tral truth or two or leading thought around 

LofCLi " 



The Teaching Problem 

which all other points naturally cluster. Of 

course the things taught should be studied with 

a view to their relative importance, resulting 

in the removal of confusion or uncer- 

The Wesson's tainty in the mind of the teacher. 

Central Truth « , . „ . 

Many things contemplated may in the 

nature of the case fail to come up for consider- 
ation in the half hour with the class, but the 
main teaching of the lesson should not be over- 
looked, even if many other things of interest 
are crowded into the background. 

A matter of associated importance with the 
last is the lesson's application. How can I 
make my pupils see this truth as it is, and have 
them realize that it is not something to be ab- 
stractly considered, but that it is in- 
Focusing Prepa- tended to be incorporated into their 
ration - • . ., < o *tai * 

living and being? There must be 

some way better than any other way of secur- 
ing this end — what is it? Teacher, you have 
reached the culmination of your preparation, 
and upon your realization of this and upon the 
tactful way in which you make your applica- 
tion depends — everything. 
100 



CHAPTER XVI. 



PUNNING A WESSON. 




TfimrnrrmTP 



AFTER having- been prepared, a les- 
son to be well taught niust be well 
planned. It should never be nec- 
essary for anyone to depend upon 
that shadowy thing* known as the 
1 ' drift" of a lesson in order to 
catch its meaning - . The succes- 
sion of steps should be so positive 
that the end is obvious. The 
, first of these steps is to plan the 
teaching* with the class as indi- 
viduals and as a whole clearly in view, in pur- 
suance of a knowledge of the class secured by 
a careful study of its personnel. 

A point of importance is to have something- 
specific with which to begin. A good begin- 
ning is no less important here than in the many 
other things in which it is regarded as so essen- 
tial. "With the lesson thus well started, 
the next requisite is to have right 
through to the end an object certain 
and positive, from which while the incidents of 
the class discussion may now and then slightly 
deflect there shall be no serious departure. 
This does not mean an iron-clad schedule as 
painful as a tight-fitting shoe, but an easy and 
101 



Specific, Clear, 
Positive 



The Teaching Problem 

invisible restraint which prevents aimlessness 
and insures a measure of accomplishment. It 
is a mistake to suppose that a class either en- 
joys or profits by a shapeless, planless hour an3 r 
more than by a lesson which is ostentatiously 
strait- jacketed or manacled. The teacher sim- 
ply needs to know exactly what he is trying 
to do, and to do it as nearly as circumstances 
will allow. 

The end should crown the work here, too, as 
in all other things which terminate satisfacto- 
rily to all concerned. The purpose of any les- 
son is at least partially defeated which ends 
poorly — which " peters out." The 

Well Begun, WQrk of the d . g t t be 

Well Ended „ J „ . 

measured to an extent by its ending-, 

and especially is this the estimate of the new 
pupil or the visitor. I^et the last thing- broug-ht 
forward be something- positive, vigorous and as 
impressive as may be — something- to be carried 
home and definitely associated with that day 
and place. This result perhaps cannot be ac- 
complished every time, but if always in mind 
may often be secured, and certainly may be 
counted on as a preventive of an unfortunate 
ending. A skillful summary of the lesson, a 
striking presentation of its central thought, a 
shrewd illustration or a pointed application — 
any of these — may furnish the finish desired. 

In order to keep the plan of the lesson well 
in hand the teacher should have at least certain 
leading questions, and often questions of detail 
as well, shaped and framed. As a drill in cul- 
tivating perspicuity and clearness many of 
102 



Some Effective Training 

these questions may be written out, corrected, 
amended and strengthened. I do not mean that 
a stereotyped form of question should be pre- 
sented to the class, but that the teacher 
will do well to train himself as a ques- framing the 

-r • « .• 7 Questions 

tioner. It is perhaps not well to have 

a written list of questions in the class room, 
but lesson memoranda such as every teacher 
needs to carry will suggest these with sufficient 
accuracy, and will avoid the stiffness which 
may otherwise ensue. 

The result of this preliminary question- 
framing will sometimes be surprising. When 
recorded in cold pencil lines a thought may be 
almost unrecognizable, and the crudity 
with which it is at first expressed is £ Critical Self 
likely to lead one to wonder whether 
he really knows anything about the matter in 
hand. He thus becomes a student and critic of 
himself as a teacher, as well as a student of the 
scripture lesson, a combination of investiga- 
tion which cannot be otherwise than fruitful 
of results. 

Another consequence of systematic question 
study is the tendency to correct the pernicious 
habit of depending largely on the impulse of 
the teaching hour as a guide in its ex- 
ercises. The intelligent impulse oc- ? he Demoralizing 

Impulse 

casionally born of thoughtful plans 
may be of great value in enriching* a lesson, 
but depended on as a teaching resource impulse 
is both unreliable and dangerous. 

Whatever may be said for lesson helps, their 
specific questions should not be repeated by the 
103 



The Teaching Problem 

teacher. A certain editor whoni I once knew 
used to say in defense of his practice of appro- 
priating bodily the editorials of other 
Questions from papers> « Well, they are better than I 

the Help . . 

can write." The teacher may in the 

same way say that the questions in the " quar- 
terly " are better than any he can prepare. 
Granted that this assumption is in the main 
correct, it does not follow that they are to be 
more than at most suggestive. You are con- 
scious, teacher, that the question in the " help" 
is not your question. Do you not know that it is 
practically certain that you in repeating- it can- 
not have exactly in mind the thought back of 
the pencil of the one who framed it ? The per- 
sonality of the teacher, the individuality of the 
class, and the indescribable something which 
gives to lesson discussion its greatest interest 
and its deepest significance, are completely lost 
when the one asks somebody else's dead ques- 
tion, and the other furnishes a lifeless, per- 
functory reply. When you prepare your ques- 
tion, or ask your question, it is based on what 
you have gleaned from your lesson study, and 

carries with it yourself to those who 
Individuality are seeking . to learn from yoUt Y OUr 

Demanded ...... ., . ^ 

originality gives to your work a kind 

of relish, and gives to the class a kind of pro- 
prietary interest in both yourself and your 
teaching, the value of which in promoting the 
ends you have in view cannot be measured. 

The illustrations employed in making a les- 
son clear should be carefully planned. These 
should be selected from among things With 

104 



Help from Planning 

which the class is familiar, and if possible 
from things in which it is in some degree in- 
terested. Illustrations should be up- 
to-date, both because of the increased Plannin e the Illus " 

, . i •• * • trations 

interest which attaches to things cur- 
rent, and because of the increased respect in 
which the teacher is held who is evidently well 
informed. They may be taken from any 
source, and in order to furnish the necessary 
variety the teacher should always be on the 
lookout for them. They should be used, 
though, only when needed, for when a point 
is evidently clearly understood, and has made 
an impression, illustration may not only be 
superfluous but may tend to weaken the im- 
pression made. 

Among the many advantages growing out 
of the planning of a lesson outside of those 
, suggested is its office in preventing 
confusion. The unplanned les- 
son is a heap of goods — 
possibly all choice- 
piled in disorder, with 
odds and ends sticking out everywhere, and 
nothing so clearly visible as to fully determine 
its character. A planned lesson is the 
same stock neatly and tastefully ar- B ™^ in g ° rder ° ut 
ranged so that one may easily see and 
secure what he needs. In the planned lesson 
everything may be brought to the attention of 
the pupil with some regard to its relative 
importance, and matters of lesser consequence 
are never permitted to force all other things 
into the background. And, by no means the 
105 




The Teaching Problem 




least consideration, the planned 
lesson is so measured by the les- 
son hour that there is no undue 
' » » ' I sense of work half done and ob- 
jects unattained. In view of the difficulty 
which many teachers experience in properly 
"timing"" their class work, this alone would 
justify painstaking" effort to thus get the les- 
son thoroughly in hand. 
106 



CHAPTER XVII. 



TEACHING BY QUESTIONS. 

S H~E, lecture system as a method 
of instruction is the best thing- 
available in some places and under 
some circumstances, but is usually 
. inadmissible in Sunday school prac- 
E^^ss&'W'W ^' ice ' *t * s claimed to be necessary 
in very large bible classes, but even 
there it should as far as practicable, 
and I believe usually may be, avoided 
to quite an extent. Ever since the days of Soc- 
rates teachers have known that information 
elicited and imparted by the question- 




The Socratic 
Method of Teaching 



ing process has been better understood 
and more securely lodged than when 
sought to be conveyed in any other way. 
To know how to ask questions, however, is 
expert knowledge, which not many possess who 
have not given that matter very careful study. 
The advantage of reducing leading questions 
to writing has already been discussed, and I 
only design in this connection to make a few 
other suggestions about questioning 
which are born of experience. First The Clear ' Stron * 

Question 

of all, the question should be so simple 
in its language and so clear in its purpose that 
it cannot in any way be misunderstood or pro- 
107 



The Teaching Problem 

duce confusion in the attempt to answer it. It 
should never be a trap, either, designed to catch 
and embarrass the unwary pupil. I have never 
seen the "smart" teacher thus facetiously 
snaring* his boys and girls without feeling that 
there was at least one individual in that Sun- 
day school badly out of place. 

To ask questions of the pupils in the order 
in which they sit in the class is to train them to 
a kind of intermittent attention. While ques- 
tioning a boy at one end of the class two at the 
other end, knowing that their turn is 
Taking the Pupils several questions away, are likely to 

Seriatim . ^ . * * J 

improve the interval of waiting by 
discussing the latest ball game or the coming 
circus. The class which never knows just 
what to expect from its teacher will, other 
things being equal, talk less and listen better 
than a class in which each has his regularly re- 
curring "turn" in the progress of the lesson. 
To name a pupil, too, in the beginning of a 
question is to advertise to the others that their 
participation is not for the minute expected, 

and to invite a resumption of the cir- 
A Too Early Des- cus conver sation. No one in the circle 

ignation . 

should know that the question is not to 
be his own until it has been finished and some 
one designated to answer. The alert teacher 
soon learns that it is much better to have the 
full half dozen boys know what he is doing 
than to have that knowledge confined at inter- 
vals to each one in the half dozen seriatim. 

The question which carries with it in its 
wording its own answer interests nobody, in- 
108 



Questions and Questions 

forms nobody, develops nobody. Indeed the 
bright pupil sometimes feels a sense of humili- 
ation when asked a question which 
the teacher has seemed to take it for ^Question™"' 
granted can only be answered by the 
aid of suggestion. There is no such thing as 
ripening pupils under any process which does 
not appeal to their individuality and assume 
that they have some knowledge of the subject 
in hand. This does not mean that questions 
should be difficult or puzzling, but only that it 
is a mistake to regard a live boy or girl as an 
automaton. 

There is perhaps no teacher who is not sur- 
prised at times to find by the answer that a 
question which he thought could have 

but one meaning has clearly conveyed Two Pos8lble 

i.i a r. v. i.1 Meanings 

another, and has been correctly an- 
swered with the other meaning in view. In 
such a case there is but one thing to do— give 
the pupil credit for a proper answer as promptly 
as though it had been the one expected. To in- 
dicate that it is incorrect and ask for another, 
as is too often done, is to both discourage the 
pupil and to create an impression that the 
teacher doesn't quite know what he is talking 
about— an impression which is sometimes well 
grounded. The proper way is to accept the 
answer given, nod approvingly, and hunt for 
the point first aimed at with some other ques- 
tion more explicitly framed. 

Even the lame and incomplete answer, when 
honestly given, should be accepted as far as the 
case will permit. Often an additional question 
109 



The Teaching Problem 

to the same pupil will round out the answer de- 
sired, and both teacher and pupil will feel vastly- 
better than if the one had entirely ignored the 
effort of the other. In such a situation 
Make the Most of the teacher s hould never turn from the 
dull pupil to a brighter one for a better 
answer, such a turning being a virtual adver- 
tisement to the class of a recognized difference 
in relative attainments. Many a good class has 
been spoiled by a sincere teacher lacking the 
tact which makes the most out of the answers 
elicited and avoids the invidious comparison as 
a pestilence. 

Do I know how to ask questions ? is a very 
natural query for the honest teacher to pro- 
pound to himself. There is a tribunal 
Questions Put to at hand which is able to f urn i s h a clear 

and positive answer — a tribunal from 
whose verdict there is no appeal. The test of a 
habit or manner of questioning is its effect on 
the class. There is no need of going farther 
for light on this point. 

110 




CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE MATTER OF 
ATTENTION. 

IN coining- before the class the very first thing- 
is to g"ain and possess the class. It must for 
the half hour be the teacher's own. When 
Marc Anthony called to the Romans, " Lend me 
your ears," he asked for only a part of that 
which the teacher requires right in the begin- 
ning-. The teacher wants along- with the ears 
the eyes and an attent or stretched-toward- 
him personality. I have in mind an earnest 
man who listens to a sermon with his left elbow 
on the back of the seat before him and his chin 
on his left hand, as though he would meet his 
pastor half way — and he really does so 
meet his pastor. That is attention. Meeting the Teacher 
*. „... , .. . .... Halt Way 

A condition is to be created in whicn 

the pupil is to feel that the greatest thing- be- 
fore him is what the teacher is saying and do- 
ing. That is attention. When a lady school 
teacher of my acquaintance desires to especially 
impress her pupils she asks them to shut their 
eyes and listen. That is securing- attention. 

Attention is not merely acquiescent quiet. 
It is not enoug-h that the class is simply in re- 
pose, with eyes fixed on the teacher. That is 
such an improvement on the condition in which 
111 



The Teaching Problem 

many a class is always found that it "seems by 
comparison to be all that can be asked for ; — 
and to get a restless class into this position is 
an achievement which is not lightly regarded. 

But this is not enough. The most that 
tention is u can g Q ^ YQUr c l ass { n this case 

Never Passive ^ J 

is that it is passive in your hands. At- 
tention is never passive. It is an active, parti- 
cipating interest. It is your half circle of pu- 
pils — it should always be a half circle with the 
teacher as a center, never a straight line — with 
their heads leaning in so as to form a smaller 
half circle than that formed by their bodies, 
that you can impress, and mould, and lead. 
Work for this active attention until you get it. 
It may not be easy, but you will find the way. 
The kind of beginning made, alluded to else- 
where, is an important factor in securing at- 
tention, the suggestions concerning which need 
not be repeated. Another essential is as nearly 

as possible keeping all busy. The idle 
Keep the Pupil Qr overlooked pupil will drift away as 
Employed * 

surely as the hour will pass. Both in 

securing attention and in holding attention 
once secured one must be ready to show some- 
thing, or tell something, or ask something 
which will catch the wandering eye or thought. 
And the puzzling part of it is to do this so that 
it may seem to be a part of the lesson exercise, 
and not a palpable effort at pedagogic control. 
The things told and shown not only need to be 
new and interesting, but must be wonderfully 
varied as the necessity develops from Sunday to 
Sunday of recourse to devices for holding atten- 
112 



Holding Attention 

tion. New thing's are to be resorted to as called 
for, things both unsensational and germane to 
Sunday school purposes. The teacher who is 
sufficiently resourceful to cover this ground 
thoroughly is usually the product of years of 
devoted effort and study. 

Earnestness does much to rivet attention. 
One who believes in his heart everything which 
he says, and whose sincere solicitude to create 
in others a similar faith looks frankly 

through his eyes and finds its way ten- Earnestness and 
« , - . . r . , Attention 

derly through his voice, often wins the 
pupil's attention at once, and once completely 
won in this way it is seldom lost. Earnestness 
must not be confounded, though, with frantic 
exertion and vehement appeal. These repel as 
certainly as the other attracts, and defeat much 
work otherwise well planned and judiciously 
performed. 

The teacher is powerless, though, to com- 
pletely solve the problem of securing and hold- 
ing- attention without the active cooperation of 
the class. The pupil is neither here 

nor anywhere else a lay fiVure, but is The Pu P l1 as a 

.- ... Participant 

necessarily a participating agency, 

the full force of which may be and should be 
in alliance with the teacher. The beginning 
of this alliance comes when attention is first 
won, and it is perpetuated and sealed when 
something- interesting follows and the expec- 
tations created in the pupil are realized. A 
teaching outcome below the standard set up by 
the beginning is disastrous if not fatal. Pupils 
can hardly be fooled a second time. 
113 



The Teaching Problem 

The teacher is largely responsible for the 

pupil's attention. The presence of anyone in 

the class is not to be taken as proof positive 

that there is one who wants to be 

A Challenge from taug . ntt indeed it is certain that 

the Pupil. to 

many do not want to be taught. It 
cannot even be taken as evidence presumptive 
that attendance means that one cares particu- 
larly to be interested in the things which the 
teacher is expected to furnish. So many are 
the motives which prompt people to fall into 
Sunday school lines, and so utterly motiveless 
are many who are found in the classes, that 
nothing respecting the inciting causes of their 
presence can be assumed. However, the pupil 
has placed himself in the way of learning the 
truth, with the knowledge, if he knows any- 
thing, that something appealing to his higher 
life is likely to come his way, and — shall I say 
it ? — with a kind of feeling that if the school 
management performs its proper function the 
indefinite elevating something will come his 
way. Briefly, his presence is a kind of chal- 
lenge to the teacher to interest him, win his 
attention and help him. Teacher, will you take 
up his gage ? 

114 




CHAPTER XIX. 

TEACHING THE INDIVIDUAL. 

JO one is efficiently taught who is not 
taught with a view to what he as an 
individual is. To enter upon one's 
duties before the class with the 
idea that " a class is a class and a 
pupil is a pupil " will not do. While there are 
features in the make-up of a class common to 
all who are in it, there are many more par- 
ticulars in which every member of it differs 
from every other member. While these re. 
semblances are to be utilized, the more essen- 
tial part is to avail one's self of all that is 
known about the things which make each 
one in himself a study. 

Pupils differ as woods differ, as plants 
differ, as flowers differ. One is a hothouse 
product ; another has been toughened by the 
storm. One is from a home of culture 
and refinement ; another knows noth- Pupils an i d Pupils 
ing of the amenities of polite life. 
One has been raised under healthy moral in- 
fluences, but has fallen ; another similarly sur- 
rounded has wholesomely developed. One has 
come out from a den of vice and is manfully 
trying to tie himself to better things; another, 
although from elevating surroundings, loves 
115 




The Teaching Problem 

and clings to low associations. Nathan's beau- 
tiful story, followed by "Thou art the man," 
was meant for just one man in all the millions 
of Judah and Israel ; and shall not the teacher 
wrestle long-, earnestly and prayerfully with 
the problem of just what message to carry to 
one out of a total enrollment which he can per- 
haps count on his fingers ? 

Many teachers are full of the idea that there 
are certain positive things to teach, and only 
one way to teach them. If this way does not 

strike the pupil favorably it is set 
The Teacher with down ag th pupi p s fault and he 
One Way r r 

ought to be ashamed of himself. The 

little scamp is incorrigible, simply will not 
take his molasses and treacle without a wry 
face, and the case is hopeless. It never occurs 
to such teachers that there is any other way, or 
that there ought to be any other way. 

What blunders are sometimes committed in 
the name of teaching ! It is a temperance les- 
son, and the hour is filled with jumbled state- 
ments of criminal statistics which no 
A Sample Misfit Qne can compreheiKlj followed by a 
Lesson . x . , , « 

merciless tirade against the brutal 

husband who neglects or abuses his family for 
drink, and rounding up with the horrible pic- 
ture of the saloon-keeper and his crimes, which 
is so common in connection with these occa- 
sions. The teacher has forgotten the lessons 
growing out of the text, and has overlooked the 
shrinking little girl in the corner whose father 
is wasting himself in debauchery, and the sul- 
len boy of foreign birth, who, educated to be- 
116 



Some Necessary Knowledge 

lieve his father's business honorable, listens in 
shame and indignation to what he considers 
genuine defamation. The girl is heartbroken, 
and the boy is lost to the school. This teacher's 
work is even more out of place than that of the 
teacher who spends the half hour in solemnly 
warning a class of exemplary middle-aged 
women against the evils of the drink habit. 
The teacher who works intelligently with the 
individual pupil in mind will never commit 
such blunders as these. They are inexcusable. 
The thoughtlessness lying back of them will 
defeat any well planned work, in Sunday school 
or elsewhere. 

The foregoing paragraphs point to the neces- 
sity of the teacher knowing his class. He must 
know it as a whole, as a composite pupil. He 
must know it as individuals, from one end of 
the arc of faces about him to the other. 

He must train himself to discover the Knowin e the 

Individual 

little differences which to the closely 
discriminating eye so clearly distinguish one 
boy or girl from another, and must make good 
use of the knowledge thus acquired. He should 
as far as possible know the boy in his parent- 
age, in his habits, in his occupation, in his as- 
sociates, in his amusements, in his aspirations, 
in his weaknesses, in his prejudices, in his edu- 
cational environment. He should understand 
as far as may be everything that goes to make 
up the pupil's personality, the trend of beliefs 
in his home, the depth of his ignorance of 
spiritual and other things, the obstacles to be 
117 



The Teaching Problem 

encountered in turning- him toward the Chris- 
tian life. 

Those familiar with the work of the Mor- 
mons know that their great success as a church 
lies largely in their intimate knowledge of all 
those brought under their influence. 
How the Mor- Th tactfully am } without disclosing* 

mons Know . 

that they are after knowledge, dis- 
cover the special bent of every young- L,atter 
Day Saint. Any tendency toward apostasy is 
quickly detected and shrewdly counteracted. 
No church outside of the Jews absolutely holds 
so larg-e a proportion of those once on its mem- 
bership rolls, and for the special reason that its 
members are individually known. 

How is such knowledg-e secured ? How is 

the teacher to know the pupil ? The new boy 

appearing- in any community has hardly made 

his debut until all the other boys know 

There May Be an aU about h{ thoroughly size him up 

Open Sesame „ . ,.,.., \ 

and assig-n him his place among- them ; 

and events usually prove that they have diag- 
nosed him with great accuracy. How are such 
things done ? Some suggestions in this con- 
nection will be found under the head of " The 
Teacher as the Pupil's Friend and Helper," in 
another part of this book. The teacher who 
really seeks to know any pupil, and sets about 
it in dead earnest, is sure to succeed to a most 
gratifying extent ; but when the hardest part 
of the work has been done he would be puzzled 
to write out a recipe for doing the same thing 
in other cases. Outside of that which may be 
ascertained by discreet inquiry, it is certain, 
118 



Winning Confidence 

though, that the great thing- is to win the confi- 
dence and the confidences of the pupil. The 
teacher who is freely consulted by the members 
of his class possesses the open sesame to their 
individual lives. Why should not the teacher 
expect to be thus consulted ? He wants to be 
everything- to the pupil that one individual can 
be to another in the line of helpfulness, and 
would often make a great immediate personal 
sacrifice in order to insure that the members of 
his class should take him to be just what he 
means to be to them. When he knows the in- 
dividual as he may know him, this end is in a 
fair way of realization. 

119 




CHAPTER XX. 

THE PUPIl/S COOPERATION. 

THEN the pupil's attention has been 
won, and the teacher has kept the 
pupil as an individual in mind throug-h 
all his preparation and class 
room work, he is in position to 
expect the pupil's cooperation. 
In this as in many other things 
he does not want to seem to be 
trying- to g*ain something- which is uncertain 
and elusive. The moral effect of assuming- 
that the class may be counted on for such as- 
sistance as it may be able to render, not only 
in the Sunday school session but in 
To be Taken as a other class WQrk . g wholes0 me and 
Fixed Fact . . _. '.„,.. 

positive. To ask with a hesitating- air 

for that which need never be made a matter of 
question is to open the way for difficulties 
which would not otherwise exist. However 
the teacher may feel in the matter, the class 
should never know otherwise than that its full 
and hearty cooperation is taken for granted. 
With this kind of a beg-inning- it only remains 
to develop and direct the aid some measure of 
which is already assured. 

It is worth a great deal to convert a pupil 
from a passive sojourner in the class to an 
120 



Active vs. Passive 

active helper. We have seen that one cannot 
accord attention passively. It is equally true 
that one cannot listen passively to pur- 
pose, or learn passively. When a From s °i° urner to 

« , . , . Helper 

class ceases to be altogether passive 

it begins to cooperate, and the gradual devel- 
opment of activity is the growth of coopera- 
tion. This growth once begun, it should be the 
great aim of the teacher to promote it. 

An encouraging start in cooperation is se- 
cured when the pupil begins to prepare his les- 
sons. He can be stimulated in this if he can 
in some way be made to see how much better 
he knows a thing which he has himself investi- 
gated, and the benefit to himself of the conse- 
quent effort. The analogy between his work 
in the Sunday school and in the day 

school may be brought to his notice, Something Definite 

Ahead 

and some of the interest created in 
the one which is felt in the other. I^et him see 
that preparation is expected, and as he re- 
sponds more fully tactfully aid him as circum- 
stances may suggest in learning how to study. 
Young people like definite work, and the in- 
definiteness of Sunday school work has hereto- 
fore been its greatest drawback — a hindrance 
likely to disappear as the graded system of 
school instruction is introduced. To expect 
active cooperation in doing nothing is an 
anomaly. Be sure, then, to quietly furnish 
something to do, while carefully avoiding the 
possibility of overloading with work. 

In promoting study and investigation en- 
courage the pupils to ask about things which 
121 



The Teaching Problem 

they do not understand. If they can be induced 
to write out their questions it is still better, al- 
though perhaps not many will do this. Whether 
written or verbal, however, the ques- 

Inducing Good tions should rece ive prompt attention. 

Class Work *■«.«■,«- 

Furnish the best answers you can, be- 
ing- careful, though, to rather assist the pupil 
to find his own answer where that is practica- 
ble. Pupils' questions may be turned over to 
the class for answer, where that can be done 
without putting- one pupil in contrast with an- 
other in biblical or other knowledg-e. Of course 
such contrasts must be avoided. Do not fail to 
commend g*ood questions and g-ood answers, 
and make the most of any pretext for bringing 
them to the front. The cooperation which con- 
sists in g-etting- the greater part of the work of 
the lesson hour out of the class is the object for 
which we are working, and this is one way of 
getting it. 

The class will be more certain to meet you 
half way in your teaching efforts if your les- 
son discussions and questions are marked by 
an easy conversational manner. While the 
teacher should preserve the kind of dignity 
which insures respect, this is by no means in- 
compatible with a manner which will put every 
pupil at ease. Stiffness and unneces- 

Use the Pupil's g formality should be unknown in 

Knowledge . . 

the intercourse between teacher and 

pupil. All sense of painful restraint must be 

removed if the pupil is to cooperate. This may 

be promoted by talking as far as may be of the 

things which the -oupil knows best. This will 

122 



Drawing the Pupil Out 

draw him out as nothing- else will, and before 
he is aware of it he has become responsive. 
Tactful appeal to the knowledge he already 
possesses will unfailingly create a desire to re- 
spond, and when this point has been gained 
the teacher is rapidly becoming master of the 
situation. 

It would seem at first glance that there is 
not much in the life of the average pupil to 
which appeal may be made. A patient search 
for the key to the springs of his life will show 
that this is a mistaken idea. Almost 

anyone may be touched and won * Draft Alwa y* 

, , , . - 1 . « Honored 

through his day school experience and 

through a clear recognition of attainment in 
whatever direction it may lie. The draft made 
upon what he certainly knows will be honored 
with pardonable pride, and in its honoring 
the wish to learn about other things will be 
incidentally cultivated and strengthened. 

It is necessary above all things £o place 
one's self upon the pupil's level. Many a 
teacher blindly gropes for a common 
ground on which both may stand, not 
seeing that his failure is due to the ef- 
fort to get the pupil to think in his way 
and regard things from his standpoint. 
One may know a thing so well that he 
cannot see why others do not know it as well. 
There seems to be no necessity of ex- 
planation of a thing so self-evident, An Uncompanion- 

A '* V. A 1 • at>le Stride 

and if he does essay to explain, his 
standards of comparison and his illustrations 
only further complicate the situation. He is 
123 




The Teaching Problem 

away above his pupil, and cooperation between 
the two is practically impossible. If teaching- 
a class of little children he has not made the 
steps short for little feet. Or if his pupils are 
older he has equally misjudged their stride. In 
fact he knows but one pace, and that is his 
own ; and his lack of understanding- that there 
is or can be anything- else condemns him to walk 
alone — although among* the most companiona- 
ble people to be found, to be companionless; 
and although within reach of the sweetest sym- 
pathy, to know nothing of being in touch with 
other hearts. 

124 




CHAPTER XXI. 

MAKING THE WESSON PI,AIN. 

|0 efforts at teaching- can be 
made to serve a useful pur- 
pose which do not make the les- 
son plain. With this end in view 
no knowledge should be taken for 
granted. The safe basis on which to work is 
to assume that nothing of consequence is defi- 
nitely known. So much apparently should be 
known about the Bible and its teachings which 
investigation shows is not known that it is 
really surprising how much of the rudimentary 
is necessary in teaching even adult 
classes. Children of intelligent Chris- £ J^*"* 68 " ° f 
tian people, who are naturally assumed 
to be at least fairly informed, frequently prove 
to be possessed of only the most general outline 
knowledge ; and the same condition is by no 
means rare among adult church members who 
in other things are reasonably intelligent. 
What, then, is to be expected of those outside 
of religious influence or training ! 

Having, as the lesson progresses, secured 
some idea of the extent to which its general 
trend is understood by the class, that which is 
essential and is not understood should, as far 
as practicable, be made plain. No time should 
125 



The Teaching Problem 

be spent, though, in additional explanation or 
illustration of that which is already clearly- 
known, both because of the unnecessary waste 
of precious time, and because pupils tire of 
nothing- more quickly than of unneeded teach- 
ing. 

It is not possible to bring out every shade of 

meaning in every text, or to clearly define the 

office of every word. However, the 

th^Text 11118 m ° st natural interpretation of the text 

should be caught, care being taken 
not to burden the class with complicated exe- 
getical explanation. If possible, light should 
be thrown on language which is obscure — pro- 
vided the verse bears any responsible relation 
to the meaning of the lesson. Scriptural terms 
are often given astonishing explanations by 
people who should know better. This may be 
confidently looked for, and the effect should be 
tactfully provided against in the class. 

As elsewhere shown, a truth brought out by 
questioning is much more clearly es« 
tablished than when placed before 
the class by statement. Along 
with the question any vehicle for 
conveying the truth may be em- 
ployed which will carry it posi- 
tively and clearly into the minds of the pupils. 
The teacher may bound a truth as he would 
a new state or country, or he may by 

Measurement of comparison describe it as he would a 
new fruit. One familiar with the apri- 
cot may give to one who has never seen it some 
idea of its characteristics by saying that in its 
126 




Occasions for Care 

skin it is like the peach, in color like the orange, 
in shape oval, in size like the seckel pear, in 
flesh and flavor like the larger plums, in stone 
slightly different from all other similar fruits 
in its smoothness and entire separation from 
the flesh, etc. Or, an intelligent use of a suit- 
able story may make clear that which would 
otherwise be obscure. L,et the story or illus- 
tration in every case, though, set up standards 
of measurement with which the pupil is famil- 
iar, and avail itself of his positive knowledge. 

A teacher may overinstruct. This state- 
ment is more easily made than illustrated. 
There may be such an abundance of explana- 
tion and illustration as to both tire 
and confuse. It is just as important Teaching May Be 
to know when to quit and turn to some- 
thing else as to know where and how to begin. 
It is better that there should be a lack than that 
there should be a surfeit. The underdone les- 
son may afterward be taken up and completed ; 
the overdone lesson is turned from with a sense 
of relief and weariness. 

One should attempt to teach only what he 
can teach. A lesson is not made plain by 
teacher and pupils entering together in the les- 
son hour upon an investigation in which both 
are groping in the dark. To try to ex- 
plain the thing that is not understood Teachin g Known 
f -, . **», Things 

is a dangerous experiment. The 

teacher may hesitate to say "I do not know," 
and it is an admission which it will not be 
necessary to make with great frequency ; but 
it is incomparably better to make this manly 
127 



The Teaching Problem 

confession occasionally than to either mislead 
the pupil or to be humiliated by the discovery 
by keen young* eyes that you have been guilty 
of a shallow pretense. This latter alternative 
is practically the destruction of a teacher's in- 
fluence and usefulness. 

Making- a lesson plain is the best possible 

thing connected with teaching* that a teacher 

can do for himself. The effort to obtain such a 

view of the subject in hand as will 

T ood T part herS <l ualif y for snaking ^ plain beyond 
question to somebody else is a stimu- 
lus and self -developer whose value is inestima- 
ble. The study to make plain is only a step, 
though, to the teaching consequent upon such 
study, which is the crown of it all. No one 
knows a thing half so well until he has pains- 
takingly explained it to somebody else. Have 
you been looking for the teacher's reward ? A 
very considerable measure of it comes right 
here as you go along. 

128 




CHAPTER XXII. 

SOME PRACTICES TO AVOID. 

% HBRE are many widely current prac- 
tices in the work of teachers before 
their classes which must be avoided by 
those who would teach at least fairly 
well, not to speak of those who aim at 
y-. excellence. In listing "The Things I Need to 
^' Do" one should not fail to place beside it in 
equal prominence "The Things I Must Not 
Do." What are some of these things to be 
shunned ? 

Did you ever see the pappoose bound up and 
strapped to a board, and transported in this 
shape on the back of the Indian mother ? This, 
considering the conditions under which he is to 
grow up, and the life which he is to 
live, may be excellent treatment for Strai *-Jacket 

* • -r^ , ., h, Teaching 

the embryo warrior. But a child can- 
not be trained in the Sunday school on that 
plan. Strait-jacket instruction is a failure. 
Unremitting effort to have the children learn 
in only the teacher's way and see only with the 
teacher's eyes will defeat the teacher's object! 
The truth is to be implanted in the developing 
mind, but not necessarily so as to exactly con- 
form in every detail to the shape in which it 
appears in the mind of the teacher. Few peo- 
5 129 



The Teaching Problem 

pie of any age are able to form exactly the 
same conception of any Bible truth ; and spe- 
cial care should be taken to make the impres- 
sion on the mind of the Sunday school pupil 
simple, direct and positive, and as nearly as 
may be free from fanciful interpretations. 
The pupil's knowledg-e is not to be moulded 
like an image, and branded as genuine only 
when it appears with the characteristic trade- 
mark of the instructor. Our work is to train 
men and women — not cast them in a mould. 

Teaching should not be done in a stereo- 
typed way. The teacher whose class always 
knows exactly what to expect is in danger of 

breeding stupidity even among bright 
Stereotyped b and .^ pit the clasg which 

Teaching ° . 

never knows a surprise, and which 

never feels the thrill of pleasant anticipation! 
Pity the teacher who always looks into faces 
thus always necessarily unresponsive! Avoid 
teaching by rote. This is the great danger in 
lesson helps. These too strictly adhered to not 
only take the sharp edge off all interest, but 
make it probable that the little that is remem- 
bered will be more as to what Dr. Commentator 
said than as to what Christ taught. 

Not only must we avoid trying to cast God's 

truth into a rigid mould of our own for the use 

of other people, but it is equally out of 

Teaching Our place to work up an ingenious theory 
Own Theories r f ° . 

of our own and teach that instead of 

the lesson. How often do we find this kind of 

thing substituted for teaching! Nothing can 

be more completely unwarranted. It is sub- 

130 



Irrelevant Discussions 

versive of every end of good teaching". It is 
dangerous. I had almost said it is sacrilege. 
The teacher with nothing but his own theories 
to present is in the position of a man with 
a cigar in a powder magazine. He may do an 
amount of damage out of all proportion to his 
personal importance. And yet there are many 
such teachers. 

The discussions in the lesson hour should 
not lead away into subjects not germane to the 
lesson. Every teacher will find it at times a 
little difficult to keep the class from wandering 
into other fields. It is so easy for the 

pupils to do this, and it is SO easy for Wandering from 

, . . -r the Lesson 

the teacher to permit it to be done. It 

sometimes adds a little interest, too, and there 
is a strong temptation to indulge this tendency. 
However, the practice is demoralizing. The 
definite things to be learned are in the les- 
son — not outside of it — and if something not 
immediately connected with it comes in easily 
and naturally to impress a wholesome truth, it 
is certainly all right ; but the point having 
been made, the class should be gently led back 
to the subject in hand. No one who is inclined 
to wander should be "brought up short' ' into 
line, but the discussion should 
be brought back as quickly 
and as smoothly as prac- 
ticable into its proper 
channel. 

It is not the business of 
the teacher to seek to en- 
tertain or to amuse. The 

131 




The Teaching Problem 

earnest, whole-souled, tactful, devoted teacher 

does entertain, but entertains incidentally. 

The smile in the Sunday school class is not out 

of place — but that, too, should be incidental. 

To go before the class Sunday morning- with 

the sole idea of making- a personal 

The Idea of En- i m p res sion on the class as an enter- 
tertaining . . 

tamer is to borrow the ruling- motive 

from many less noble lines of work. The 
teacher whose chief aim is to entertain may 
not be disposed at first thoug-ht to accept this 
statement as correct, but on studying- the mat- 
ter thoroughly can arrive at no other conclu- 
sion. There is a time to entertain and amuse 
the class, and that is in your own home or at 
the picnic. Under these proper conditions no 
pains should be spared to furnish all the whole- 
some fun possible; but on Sunday morning in 
the class room there is a different duty to dis- 
charge. 

How many an otherwise excellent teacher in 
an anxiety to entertain descends to flippancy! 
I have in mind a young Bible student of most 
brilliant parts, broad, intelligent, able, whose 
availability as a teacher of the very 
Flippancy to be hig . hest order i s destroyed by the cer- 
tainty that a flippant remark at a crit- 
ical point will defeat the whole aim of teach- 
ing. Here is a place at which no risk can be 
taken. Flippancy and irreverence are so nearly 
of kin that to indulge the one is to invite the 
other. The besetting sin of young people is ir- 
reverence. A trifling word at the wrong place 
is as a match to tinder, and evil follows. 
132 



The Class Exhorter 

The teacher should not be a class exhorter. 
Young people are susceptible to strong- religious 
impressions at the hands of the earnest teacher 
whose life is a living exposition of the lesson, 
and whose clear application of the lesson has a 
meaning for every pupil. There are times, too, 
when an earnest word with the pupil is the 
word in season. There cannot be such a thing 
as a too close connection of the teacher with 
the spiritual welfare of the class. No teacher, 
though, can habitually harangue or exhort his 
class from Sunday to Sunday with good effect. 
Some of the best people of my acquaintance 
have failed as teachers because of their failure 
to learn this practical lesson. 

No teacher can afford to indulge in argu- 
ment with his pupils. There is here and there 
a pupil, and usually in the bible classes, con- 
stantly on the watch for an opportu- 
nity to debate. The Sunday school Su PP ress the 

i • a x .i. Debater 

class is organized for the greatest 

good to the greatest number, and its object 
would be unattained if its time were devoted to 
settling the controversial points which the de- 
bating member is always springing. But when 
it is remembered that nothing is ever settled in 
this way, the futility and wastefulness of in- 
dulging in debate is the more apparent. If 
you know your chronic debater, state your po- 
sition in a few words if such a statement is un- 
avoidable, making no argument, but quoting 
the particular scripture on which you rest; then 
turn quickly to somebody else with a positive 
question on the lesson. A few experiences of 
133 



The Teaching Problem 

this kind will either cause your debater to rec- 
ognize the rights of the class at large, or will 
drive him out of it. Of course you do not want 
him to go, but he had better go than stay if 
he cannot be shut off. 

Another thing to be avoided by the teacher 

is a too generous filling in of details in Bible 

stories. A peculiarity of scripture narrative is 

its extreme brevity. The details with which 

the ordinary story abound are here wanting, 

and it is seldom that contemporaneous 

Danger in Know- profane history comes to our aid. 

mg Too Much *;_ J . 

Many things are inferable from the 

setting of the story, the incidents related, the 
deeds performed, etc. A judicious use of posi- 
tively inferential details may sometimes serve 
a good purpose; but the teacher should care- 
fully guard against knowing too much. The 
keenly observant pupil is not slow to see the 
difference between the genuine and the spuri- 
ous in story, description or biography, and the 
teacher who "overdoes" the narrative or the 
personal description does so at the peril of the 
respect in which that which he teaches is held. 
A teacher whom I once knew had read in I 
Samuel 16: 12 that the boy David was of a ruddy 
countenance, and astonished his hearers with 
the information that the great king of Judah 
and Israel had red hair. 

The teacher should be careful never to force 
or twist interpretations. An unwarranted as- 
sociation of texts sometimes figures in other- 
wise good teaching. No one supposes that the 
statement that " Judas went and hanged him- 
134 






Undertaking Too Much 

self M and " Go thou and do likewise" bear any 
relation to each other; and yet texts are 
wrenched out of position in many 
cases where scarcely less violence is musing Scnp- 

, . . „«, , , ture Texts 

done to their setting. The thought- 
less use of texts may do harm incalcula- 
ble. Their intentional misuse is sacrilege. 
A great mistake is made by the teacher who 
attempts to decide indeterminate things. In 
many directions Bible information is quite 
definite up to a certain point — and there the 
curtain drops. Many things we are 
evidently not ready to know— things Teachin e indeter- 

u- -u j.1. a * • i -j. minate Things 

which the words of promise make it 

certain will be known to us in good time. Why 
attempt to lift the curtain placed before us by 
a divine hand? There is so much we may 
know, so much we may teach, that the teacher 
will find no lack of material on which to draw. 
The Sunday school class is no place for con- 
jecture. The Sunday school hour furnishes no 
time for speculation. The mind of the pupil is 
not to be marred with pictures which may have 
to be effaced. 

135 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

ADDITIONAL TEACHING MEMORANDA. 

THE teacher must take 
pains to be correctly 
informed about questions 
f\ of fact, either connected 
with scripture or involved 
in the history of current 
ZL events. To be con- 




versant with men and things of our day and 
time, and to be able upon occasion to make 
good use of things thus learned, is to 
Conversant with add much tQ Qne , s equipmen t for effect- 
Current Things . _ , , 

ive work. To thus have new points 

with which to illustrate, and to be regarded as 
authority in all things pertaining to current in- 
formation, is both a safeguard against running 
into ruts and to hold a position in the respect 
of the pupils which cannot easily be shaken. 
How valuable all this may be only those who 
have won such a position in the esteem of their 
classes can appreciate. 

The lessons should be kept well connected. 
No one can teach successfully without 
Keeping Up the « n some waY keeping up a tangible re- 
lation between things being taught 
and those already learned. In the system un- 
der which nearly all Sunday schools are con- 
136 






The Great Text-book 

ducted the relation of one lesson to another is 
obvious. The teacher should see that this con- 
nection is not lost in the mind of the pupil, 
because of both the additional interest thus 
aroused and the greater effectiveness of the 
teaching. 

In the preparation of the lesson the Bible is 
the text-book, and the only text-book. Noth- 
ing else speaks or can speak with authority. 
One who begins with anything else 

than the Bible begins wrong. One TheB l bleA1 " 

? -r. . « - ways First 

who uses nothing but the Bible, and 

who uses it as an earnest student, is unlikely to 
go astray. The many good lesson helps pub- 
lished in our day are valuable, but only in a 
supplementary way. These, with a Bible dic- 
tionary, a concordance and maps, often rounded 
out with a good lesson weekly, furnish a very 
satisfactory equipment in connection with a 
modern teachers' Bible. 

Lesson helps have a legitimate place in the 
preparation of a lesson, but they should be 
ruled out of the class room altogether. The 
"help" in the class is simply a sub- 
stitute for the Bible, familiarity with ^ e 5 et . h 1 ! , 

, . , . , . \ "Help" Belongs 

which is never known in a class in 

which the substitute is permitted to crowd the 
Word aside. Many faithful teachers whose 
practice is not in accord with this recommen- 
dation wonder why their pupils hardly ever 
refer to the Bible in recitation. The reason is 
plain. 

If you have prepared your lesson well you 
may not get to teach all that you have pre- 
137 



The Teaching Problem 

pared. No good teacher ever does, and it is 

better so. The full measure of the contents 

of a lesson would be too much to be digested 

and remembered by the class. In try- 
Not Ail to Be ing . tQ g. et in tQO much one may f ail to 

make clearly and well even a few 
points sought to be brought out. No teacher 
can exhaust even a passage. Whole books 
have been written on a verse which a conscien- 
tious teacher sometimes thinks he should not 
leave " unfinished." To take a single thought 
out of the verse and present it clearly will give 
all a sense of work well done which never fol- 
lows too much attempted. People are prone to 
count a few hasty readings a most exhaustive 
study. I once heard a teacher say she had 
spent " two whole hours" on the 12th chapter 
of Romans, and still doubted whether she knew 
all about it. All present felt chat there was 
room for the doubt. If every teacher could 
thoroughly master every point of every lesson, 
this would in no way reasonably multiply the 
number of points to be presented to the class. 
Teachers sometimes imbibe the notion that 
to be a good teacher one must be an endless 
talker. I have had teachers say to me, " O, if I 

could only talk like Mrs. Soandso I 
Talking Against couM do go much Detter work# She 

seems to never lack something to 
say." It is overlooked that she is often lack- 
ing in pupils to say it to. It is of course quite 
a point in one's equipment for teaching to be 
able to talk well, and the ability to do so should 
be cultivated. But I have known as many 
138 



Talking and Talking 

classes to be talked to death as to die from any 
other cause. The teacher who talks against 
time usually talks without plan, and leaves a 
tired class with little in mind that may be ap- 
propriated and carried away. The object is 
not, except incidentally, to fill the teaching- 
hour — although it is better that there be no 
surplus time. The teacher may sometimes find 
it difficult to fill the time to his own satisfac- 
tion. At other times the lesson period is all 
too short. The difficulties of the case are not 
obviated, though, by the teacher being a talker 
on general principles, who always leaves the 
impression of having been newly wound up for 
the occasion. 

As important as careful biblical exposition 
is, it is of less consequence than getting at 
wholesome truths. The facts, and incidents, 
and details of Scripture are taught to 
little purpose if along with them the ™* P ^*t* De " 
pupil has not secured new and en- 
larged views of life, its responsibilities and its 
meaning. The pupil's thought is to be trained. 
The lesson is the means. The development of 
the pupil, not the stuffing of the pupil, is the 
end. Teaching is a selecting process, a shap- 
ing process, a building-up process. Good, 
honest intellectual treatment, healthy moral 
stimulus, the opening of the heart to better 
things — all are in the teacher's mind. 

The real test of the effectiveness of teach- 
ing lies in the review, and the work of the 
teacher is not completed until that work is 
tested. The review furnishes the opportunity 
139 



The Teaching Problem 

for clinching- truths already taught. It thus 

not only confirms the results of teaching", but 

brings out additional points and en- 

The Office of the riches that wh i c h has already been 

Review "1 

learned. It gives a wider and more 
comprehensive view, when properly conducted, 
and often furnishes new and clearer concep- 
tions of old truths. There should be sufficient 
revievv every Sunday to keep up the close con- 
nection of one lesson with another, and insure 
the unity of teaching. The plan on which the 
teacher works should from the start include 
the review, which is rendered comparatively 
easy for both teacher and class if made a part 
of the regular lesson work fitted in consistently 
with the rest. 

Reviewing necessitates repetition — but we 

should not be afraid of this. It is only by 

repetition that we really learn any lessons of 

value. It also calls for resourceful- 

Re 1 v I iewt b ° Ut nCSS t0 ** gfeat ^ eXtent aS an ^ 

other phase of teaching. It will not 

do to always review the class in the same way. 
The use of a few pointed, clear-cut questions, 
plainly put, is the foremost resort of the 
teacher, and must figure more largely than 
anything else in review work. But this may ' 
be varied by questions written out, chosen by 
lot, and answered as thus assigned. Or, to 
one or two pupils may be assigned the prepara- 
tion of review questions for a given Sunday, 
the teacher being for a few minutes a part of 
the class, following this practice for a time, 
with something of rotation. Or, have a mem- 
140 



The Bible Always 

ber of the class draw a map, marking- on it in 
presence of the class the geographical points 
brought out in the review. Or, have one mem- 
ber prepare questions on places, another on 
people, another on events, and so on in the 
round of matters incident to a lesson or a col- 
lection of lessons, to be propounded to the class. 
In varying the work of review have as much of 
it as possible performed by the class itself. 

And finally, first, and last, and everywhere, 
and under all circumstances, stick to the Bible. 
If fairly, and fully, and reverently presented, 
it may be depended on to make its own impres- 
sion. It is the beginning, the middle, the end 
of the lesson. Men may ponder and conjecture, 
and interpret, and while the results of their 
studies are entitled to respect and con- 
sideration, nothing should ever come Hold Fast to 
between the teacher and the Word it- 
self. The teacher's manifest faith in "Thus 
saith the L*ord" perhaps anchors more pupils 
for Eternity than all other Sunday school in- 
fluences combined. That Word which is profit- 
able for so many kinds of people in so many 
different circumstances is no more profitable 
for any than for the teacher before the class. 
141 




CHAPTER XXIV. 

DECISION DAY. 

toff 

IHBBHE teacher is a sower of seed. 
^\1 As he sows he is conscious 
that the seed is falling- in all 
kinds of places and on all kinds 
of soils. The wayside, the stony 
ground, the good soil are all with- 
in his field. He is often ready to 
believe that much of his sowing- 
is wholly futile, but he is not on this account to 
withhold his hand or spare his seed. 
Tho Sower Goes The comm i ss i oa w hich authorizes him 
Forth to Sow . 

to sow bids him to do so in faith be- 
lieving-," leaving- the result in the largest and 
broadest sense to the I<ord of the harvest. 

The teacher may or he may not reap. At 
best his may be a very small harvest, not at all 
commensurate with his hopes, and withal dis- 
appointing- as compared with the effort made 
and the seed sown. Some one else 
And Who May Do gather where he has strewn; or 

the Reaping? - , . * 

he may never see a harvest, simply 

because he has not put in his sickle. Happy is 
he, though, if he is permitted to come rejoic- 
ing, bearing his sheaves with him, a privilege 
which to many earnest teachers is in a large 
measure denied. The teacher's reward lies in 
142 



A Time of Gathering 

the knowledge that the "Well done" will fol- 
low faithful effort, irrespective of the measure 
of visible results. 

What and when shall the harvest be ? should 
be an ever-present question. What may be 
done to increase the evidence that teaching- is 
to purpose? In our time the introduction of 
Decision Day as a feature of Sunday 
school work has been blessed as a A Modern Line of 

Effort 
means to this end, and its more gen- 
eral introduction will strongly emphasize soul- 
saving in the Sunday school — an object which 
often, if at all discernible, is vague and unde- 
fined. 

Decision Day is not an event in the Sunday 
school — it is a culmination. There is a sense 
in which no specific time can be set for the ac- 
complishment of the saving of a hu- 
man soul. Times and seasons are be- Decision Da ^ a Cul " 

mination 

yond our control. Yet ever since the 
meeting in the upper chamber at Jerusalem 
concentrated prayer and united action on the 
part of Christians have been attended with 
every evidence of divine approval and bless- 
ing. Pentecost was thus a culmination, and so 
may Decision Day be a culmination. However, 
I cannot do otherwise than express the opinion 
that Decision Day efforts which are not thus 
consequent upon an tl upper chamber" begin- 
ning are altogether unwarranted and unworthy. 
In speaking of Decision Day as a culmina- 
tion I mean that the legitimate chief work of 
the Sunday school class is to lead to the result 
for which that day is appointed. The lessons 
143 



The Teaching Problem 

and influences of } r ears may be involved in the 
hoped-for outcome with some pupils, or a few- 
simple lessons may suffice with others. In any 

case it is not to be presumed that the 
The Work of Years brief Decision Day hour is a time 
Involved 

when, independently of all that has 

gone before, the best and main soul-saving 
work of the school is to be done. Can the in- 
fluence of past work be so concentrated and 
focused as to make this a day of harvest? is 
the question on which hinge the possibilities of 
the occasion. 

Decision Day must not be introduced as a 
Sunday school "scheme." The spiritual work 
of any kind which is approached by way of the 
"scheme" is at least of doubtful propriety. 
This does not mean that there should not be 
plan and purpose in all that we undertake in 
the Master's service. There are cer- 
Do Not Make It a tainly ways of doing even these things 

which are better than other ways. It 
does mean, though, that the employment of 
tricks and traps for nominally committing peo- 
ple to a course of life in the pursuance of 
which neither head nor heart has been enlisted 
is a delusion and often a fatal snare. 

Preparation for Decision Day must be en- 
tered upon with prayer, tact and judgment. 
It is not a struggle into which the school can 

rush recklessly, striking right and 
f r ^ rati ° n f ° r left as in a conquest. It is a delicate 

situation which confronts the com- 
bined workers. There must be a feeling of the 
way. Progress must be made here if any- 
144 






Hand-to-Hand Work 

where on the knees. The spirit which must 
permeate Decision Day, if it is to be a day of 
real harvest, cannot be pumped up. The good 
desired must come, if it come at all, from 
above, and as a shower of blessing. 

The well-considered effort in connection 
with the day lies in personal work with the 
pupil. This is the special province of the 
teacher. The pastor and others cannot know 
the teacher's field so well as the teacher him- 
self, and should not invade it under ordinary 
circumstances without the consent of and ad- 
vising- with the teacher. The personal appeal 
should be made in private and before- 
hand with special reference to per- Yf ith the Pupil 

. Personally 

sonal salvation, and at most with only 

incidental allusion to Decision Day itself. 
This is a much better kind of interview, from 
the standpoint of both teacher and pupil, than 
that which is held in the presence of the class, 
or with the class as a whole. On the day it- 
self, however, a few words from the teacher to 
the class itself, following the private inter- 
views already mentioned, may be added with 
propriety. 

There are children here and there who seem 
to drift naturally into the church. Some of 
the sweetest, truest Christians you have ever 
known are unable to remember a time 
when their hearts were not touched * ea . dy for Con " 
by the Savior's love. Tenderly re- 
ligious home influences sometimes result in an 
almost unconscious leading of little ones into 
the fold. The personal work of the teacher 
145 



The Teaching Problem 

may now and then discover a case of this kind 
in which the evidence of the forgiveness of sin 
is too positive to be doubted. The opportunity 
for the public confession of Christ which De- 
cision Day affords is fraught with special bless- 
ing* alike to these pupils themselves and to the 
school. 

The teacher should above all things aim to 
give the pupil an intelligent conception of 
what the desired action really signifies. The 
impression is too often inadvertently created 

that the public avowal of a purpose to 
Help the Pupil to u th h{gher lif e is in itself sa l va . 
Understand . _, . . „. „ . , „ 

tion. This is not directly taught, but 

it is certainly strongly inferential from condi- 
tions established and the nature of the appeals 
frequently resorted to upon such occasions. 
Under the pressure to follow a sudden and aim- 
less impulse resulting from a sympathetic feel- 
ing running through a lot of young people, and 
under a spell of unusual emotion, a purpose is 
many times announced which has never been 
formed. Many come to believe that the public 
avowal is the consummation of a change the 
beginning of which has never even touched, 
much less found a lodgment in, their hearts. 

This is not an argument against the public 
confession of Christ, in the Sunday school or 
elsewhere — far from it. It is only an appeal to 
those having Decision Day in hand to 
Make Public Con- prevent as f ar as possible that confus- 
ing of the confession of Christ with 
other things which, once accomplished, often 
renders impossible the ultimate salvation of 
146 



Make the Way Plain 

many of those thus led into self-deception. 
With palpable blunders of this kind on every 
hand, committed in the name of Sunday school 
work, can I do less than plead for such careful 
instruction of our pupils on this point as will 
at least lessen, and possibly minimize, this 
great danger? Teacher, the making- of De- 
cision Day a blessing- or a stumbling--block to 
your class lies in the kind of conception of the 
subject in hand which is formed in the minds 
of your pupils. 

It is not my purpose to discuss here, except 
thus incidentally, the subject of personal con- 
version, as connected with the work of the 
teacher. I would not undertake to set 

metes and bounds, and say that one Personal Con * 

- . « . -- • version 

may safely g-o so far in this direction, 

and just so far in that. As in many other 
things in this book, the aim is to secure a 
thoughtful consideration of personal duty, 
rather than to assume to more than merely and 
barely suggest in connection with its discharge. 
The consecrated teacher with his class on his 
heart can safely submit all questions of doubt 
to the arbitrament of the closet. 

Decision Day is not a day for an unusual or 
in any way special program. It should be only 
a regular Sunday school day, occurring once or 
twice a year, and arranged for as to 
time with the spiritual condition of £ t ™ e n * nd Con " 
the school in view. It should be such 
a day as may be expected when a lot of earnest 
people come together with a purpose in which 
they are all united. The preparation of the 
147 ' 



The Teaching Problem 

closet will perhaps make the work of the teacher 
a little more tender, his message a little more 
pressing — that is all. The lesson may well end 
with a brief special message, and perhaps a 
little class prayer. 

Then the day should become the pastor's. 

That individual, who is really the official head 

of the Sunday school as a part of the church, 

if he be what he may be, and has made the 

personal preparation already referred 

Past^ ° f thC to ' Can then make the P ublic a PP eal 
which should give to the day its best 

finish. Taking it for granted that he is a man 
of breadth, judgment, tenderness and deep 
spirituality, the day should be a great blessing 
to the school, whether marked by a special ob- 
vious ingathering of souls or not. 

And when it is all over? Then that other 
great work which is at least tantamount in im- 
portance is to begin. Three times within a 
single interview, and that after his great sac- 
rifice had been made, did our Savior 
" Feed My repeat the message, M Feed my lambs.' ■ 

It seems to me that the real living suc- 
cession of St. Peter lies as much in the leader- 
ship of the Sunday school class as elsewhere, 
and that to no one in the ^ ^=^ 

same way as to the Sunday ) . vj 

school teacher comes the ^_j^^ **jp*tyf''' : 
combined divine mandate ^jp^^JJ-J / / / 
and tender appeal — "Feed ^- ^f^\^ / * t 
my lambs." Right here we .^<^^|1^_6 jH^&\ 
so often fail. Decision Day ^^^ fi *// 

maybe a little ingathering; ^ IrL^tLr 

148 ^ *^ 



• 



A Grave Trust 

but the lambs are not tenderly folded ; they 
are left to grow, and wander, and develop as 
they may ; and many fall out by the way and 
are lost. When asked to account for these, 
what shall we say ? 
J Wt**- It is when we come face to face with 

J g3 * T some such question as this that the over- 
r j whelming responsibility resting* upon 

§fjt* the teacher is fully realized. Pity the 
^•*P teacher who is never impressed by this reali- 
v zation ; to whom accountability has no mean- 
ing" ; to whom the trust placed in his hands ap- 
peals in vain! How can instruction and its 
consequences be lightly undertaken and lightly 
regarded under the conditions which every- 
where and at all times surround our work! 
149 



CHAPTER XXV. 




THE CLOSING WORD. 

HE} reader who has care- 
fully followed the writer 
through these pages may 
have been impressed at 
times with the incompleteness of the discus- 
sions which they contain. He may have felt 
that further elaboration was here and 

A Condensed there desirable and that a num ber of 

Treatment 

topics have been altogether omitted 

which were germane to " The Teaching- Prob- 
lem. " To any one so impressed I owe a few 
words of explanation. 

I have sought to keep this book within read- 
able and usable limits, with the representative 
teacher in mind, and to discuss principles, 
rather than details, feeling that if I 
Principles Rather M succeed in inducing any reader 

than Details .„. , . 

to utilize the former in connection 
with his high calling, he could be safely trusted 
to fill in the latter. Too much attempted guid- 
ance confuses, and may become tiresome. En- 
vironment and circumstances vary so widely 
that the value of specific working suggestions 
in any given case is at best only relative. In 
the same way the teacher who attempts to fol- 
low directions too implicitly is in danger of be- 
coming an automaton. 

150 



1 An Organized Power 

It is better and more permanently helpful to 
lead into the study of principles, and trust to 
the individual to work out plans adapted to his 
own field and measured by his own opportuni- 
ties. Individuality is a strong point 

in the Sunday school teacher's charac- ™ e Teacher * s In - 

+ < + <, . a r - dividuality 

ter, and leadership evolved from and 

marked by his own personality is a prerogative 
in which lies much of his individual power. 
This strength brought into active harmony 
with similarly developed strength in the circle 
of fellow teachers constitutes the organized 
power of the Sunday school, than which no 
power more coherent and effective can be con- 
secrated to the service of the Master. 

The great need of the Sunday school is the 
finding and development of the teacher who 
everywhere, at all times and in all relations, is 
in such an attitude toward it that there 
can never be any doubt as to where he fj^ p °* e c * nd In " 
stands with respect to its interests 
and as to the extent to which his services are 
at its disposal. This teacher works with a com- 
bination of purpose and intelligence, a combina- 
tion in which the first element is too generally 
overlooked in the very proper emphasis which 
is placed upon the second. 

Fellow teacher, the Master's work calls upon 
each of us for heart and life. The talent and 
training we furnish are simply equip- 
ment — valuable, but incidental. The The First Con " 
real contribution must be ourselves. 
When self is given, all is given — and the other 
things will be added unto us and to our work 
151 



The Teaching Problem 

in a profusion which comes from but one 
source, and on but one condition. And the out- 
come — 




152 



NOV S 1902 



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